In her Pediatric Ethics, Issues, & Commentary column in the November-December 2008 issue of Pediatric Nursing, Anita J. Catlin examines this controversial issue and outlines the many moral, legal, ethical and spiritual questions that remain unanswered.

At the “Emerging Issues in Embryo Adoption and Donation” conference, held in May and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, child adoption advocates, property attorneys, ethicists, representatives of religious and adoption organizations and donor/recipient couples held open discussions.

On the legal side, Catlin, who attended the conference, explains that embryos “are not live children, and because only live children can be legally adopted in the U.S., the transfer of embryos from one family to another is considered a transfer of property.” Christian speakers felt the embryos were children in “cold storage” and stated that using the embryos for research would be a “holocaust” of 500,000 lives. On the other side, couples who had implanted embryos and successfully given birth described their joy as new parents.

A primary focus of the conference, Catlin writes, was on use of the word “adoption” and all it implies. Speaker Thomas C. Atwood, President and CEO of the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) said he was deeply concerned about the impact embryo placement would have on other children waiting for adoption and posed that the “highly controversial, complex, and imperfect” policies and practices of embryo transfer put it in an entirely different category than the well-established adoption process. He recommended using the term “embryo placement for pregnancy and parenting,” or “embryo placement” for short, as a preferable neutral term instead of “adoption,” due to the legal and moral controversies and to avoid harming “the precious institution of adoption.”

Catlin suggests careful consideration of Atwood’s and others’ questions in the future, but believes embryo placement is “morally possible.” (Issues and Ethics Related to Embryo Placement: A National Discussion; Anita J. Catlin, DNSc, FNP, FAAN.; Pediatric Nursing, November-December 2008; www.pediatricnursing.net)

Clearing the Dust: Asthma Program Educates Community
Using a Florida elementary school as a testing site, researchers have found that a targeted asthma education program effectively increased understanding and dispelled some prevalent myths about this common childhood disease.

In the November-December 2008 issue of Pediatric Nursing, Dorothy Brooten and her co-authors report on results from the  “Healthy Children, Healthy Homes” community asthma education program they developed.

The prevalence of asthma (as high as 20% among urban children in New York City) and the challenge of identifying potential cases “suggest that broader intervention strategies could be more effective,” Brooten writes. Increasing community awareness seemed to be the answer, thus the choice of a school-based program with a direct pipeline to the local population.

Under the program, the researchers held two education sessions for adults taught by RNs, encouraging them to reach out and educate family, friends, co-workers and others. The researchers also held an education session and an asthma fair for the children.

They conducted surveys before and after the sessions. Results showed the program “successfully permeated the school community” with more people recognizing asthma triggers and sorting out misconceptions. Participants also learned such effective prevention strategies as reducing smoking, putting pets outdoors and keeping houses clean from dust and roach droppings.

For nurses involved in community education, the combination of adult and child education with community outreach “can be a very effective method to increase the dissemination of health information,” Brooten says.

(Outcomes of an Asthma Program: Healthy Children, Healthy Homes; Dorothy Brooten, PhD, RN, FAAN, et al.; Pediatric Nursing, November-December 2008; www.pediatricnursing.net)

Members of the media:
Feel free to use these news briefs as filler in your publications. For more information, or if you would like to interview one of the authors, contact Janet D’Alesandro at janetd@ajj.com or 856-256-2422.

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Pediatric Nursing is a clinically-based journal focusing on the needs of professionals in pediatric practice, research, administration and education.