Ethically justified guidelines for family planning interventions to prevent pregnancy in female patients with chronic mental illness.

Abstract

This article proposes ethically justified clinical guidelines for family planning interventions to prevent pregnancy in female patients. We reviewed literature on family planning and consequences of pregnancy in patients with chronic mental illness and related that literature to ethical principles. Patients with chronic mental illness are ethically unique because they have chronically and variably impaired autonomy. Existing guidelines and proposals for family planning interventions for mentally retarded patients are shown not to apply to such patients. Three sets of guidelines for three groups of patients, representing the continuum of chronically and variably impaired autonomy, are proposed: (1) a set of guidelines for patients who can achieve thresholds of autonomy, (2) a set of guidelines for patients irreversibly near thresholds of autonomy, and (3) a set of guidelines for patients irreversibly below thresholds of autonomy. These guidelines should contribute significantly to the quality of obstetric and gynecologic care for female patients with chronic mental illness.