This special report has just been published in the Journal of the
American Academy of Pediatrics. There is plenty in here to chew on!

The abstract is included below and it can be found along with the full
report (which is available free of charge at the link at the bottom.)

-- Jodine Chase
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada


Contemporary Ethical Issues in Human Milk-Banking in the United States
Donna J. Miracle, PhD, MSN, RNa,b,c,
Kinga A. Szucs, MD, IBCLCd,e,f,g,h,i,
Alexia M. Torke, MD, MSc,e,j,k,l,
Paul R. Helft, MDc,e,m,n

+Author Affiliations

aRush University College of Nursing, Chicago, Illinois;
bIndiana Mothers' Milk Bank, Inc, Indianapolis, Indiana;
cCharles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics, Indiana
University Health, Indianapolis, Indiana;
Divisions of dPediatrics,
jGeneral Medicine and Geriatrics, and
mHematology/Oncology and
eDepartment of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine,
Indianapolis, Indiana;
fRiley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, Indiana;
gNewborn Nursery, Wishard Health Services, Indianapolis, Indiana;
hAmerican Academy of Pediatrics Section on Breastfeeding Executive
Committee, Elk Grove Village, Illinois;
iAcademy of Breastfeeding Medicine, New Rochelle, New York;
kIndiana University Center for Aging Research,
lRegenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana; and
nIndiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indianapolis, Indiana

ABSTRACT

Donor human milk has been used in the United States for >90 years, but
recent advances in human milk science and laboratory techniques have
led to increasing use of this resource. Pediatricians began using
donor human milk in the 1900s in response to anecdotal observation
that premature infants had better health outcomes when receiving their
own mothers' milk. Since then, a formalized human milk-banking system
developed in the mid-1980s and distributed >1 million ounces of
pasteurized donor human milk in 2008. Despite growth in the use of
pasteurized donor human milk, there is little discussion in the
medical literature regarding the ethical considerations of collection
and use of this resource. Key ethical considerations include issues
surrounding medical decision-making and informed consent, increasing
the limited supply of human milk, how ethically to allocate this
scarce resource, and concerns linked to the marketing of a human milk.

http://bit.ly/vsnDmt

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