"For the Sake of the Children" examines the social organization of
responsibility by asking who takes responsibility for critically ill
newborns. Drawing on medical records and interviews with parents and
medical staff, the authors take us into two neonatal intensive care
units, showing us the traumas of extreme medical measures and the
sufferings of infants. The accounts are by turns heroic and disturbing
as we see people trying to take charge of these infants' care, thinking
about long-term plans, redefining their roles as adults and parents, and
coping with sometimes awful contingencies.
Rather than treating responsibility as an ethical issue, the authors
focus on how responsibility is socially produced and sustained. The
authors ask: How do staff members encourage parents to take
responsibility, but keep them from interfering in medical matters, and
how do parents encourage staff vigilance when they are novices
attempting to supervise the experts?
The authors conclude that it is not sufficient simply to be responsible
individuals. Instead, we must learn how to be responsible in an
organizational world, and organizations must learn how to support
responsible individuals.