Fetal imaging and fetal monitoring: finding the ethical issues

Ethical issues are raised in connection with three technologies used to detect abnormalities or distress in the fetus in late pregnancy and during labor: (1) Ultrasound for fetal diagnosis, a technology used with increasing frequency in pregnancy and labor and one which some are advocating for routine use in pregnancy; (2) The newest of the imaging technologies, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is not now commonly used for fetal imaging, but may soon be; (3) The electronic fetal monitors, some of which work by application of the physical principles of ultrasound behavior and raise many of the same ethical issues. This paper argues that women-centered critiques of birthing technologies augment the concern with the health risks posed by those technologies with concerns about the risks that they pose to human relationships.