In this powerful and probing look at the reality of everyday choices in neonatal intensive care units, Renée Anspach explores the life-and-death dilemmas that have fueled national debate. Using case studies taken during sixteen months of extensive interviewing and observation, Anspach examines the roles of parents, doctors, nurses, and bioethicists in deciding whether critically ill newborns—be they premature, terminally ill, or severely malformed—should be saved by medical technology, or at least kept alive a little longer.

Renée R. Anspach is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan.