Maggie Jones | The New York Times Magazine
Maggie Jones is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine where she writes about social issues, including race, gender, poverty, youth, immigration, adoption and health. She has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award and was a 2012 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She was also the 2015 Senior Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has reported on stories in the U.S and around the world — from boys who live as shut-ins in Japan to adoptees re-migrating to South Korea; from forensic anthropologists uncovering bones in Guatemala to farm workers in California.
In the article “A Miracle, and Yet,” author Maggie Jones explores a variety of the connotations that comes with fetal surgery. Jones does through by integrating the story of Kelly Hasten, a mother who received prenatal treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with the history of fetal surgery and its many implications.
Jones primarily explores some of the concerns that the general public have presented to the proponents of fetal surgery as described by Jones: “Some doctors and ethicists have criticized surgeons for cutting into the womb without strong evidence that the surgery even works.” Nearly half of the fetal surgeries being performed in the United States are not done by registered fetal surgeons as there are so few. And those who do specialize in this field are practically making up the rules as they go along. Because of this, all the risks are not yet known and it is still viewed as highly contentious.
Another interesting aspect of the current innovations in the field of fetal surgery are that of ethical concerns as expressed by Jones in the article, “At the same time, maternal-fetal surgery has become enmeshed in the politics of reproductive rights, as abortion opponents and supporters wrestle over whether the surgery proves that the fetus is, in fact, a patient and therefore a human being with its own rights to medical care and to life.” Many have criticized fetal surgery, similar to those who oppose abortion, for forcing a procedure on a human being without consent. This brings in questions of morality such as: If a fetus would be able to survive outside of the uterus is it wrong to intervene? Additionally, people have demonized fetal surgery for “playing god” because of the idea of fixing a baby before it is even born.
Jones does not make an argument but rather gives the reader insight into the many limitations of the “miracle” known as neonatal surgery so that they can form their own opinions about the topic.
The Future is Fetal - an Exploration in Neonatal Surgery 