This study examines the organization of social responsibility in the USA, in particular of critically ill newborn children. Drawing on medical records and interviews with parents and medical staff, the book investigates two neonatal intensive care units, showing the traumas of extreme medical measures, and the sufferings of infants. The accounts are by turns disturbing and heroic, as parents and staff attempt to take charge of the infants' care, redefining their roles as adults and parents, and coping with sometimes awful contingencies. Rather than treating responsibility as an ethical issue, the book focuses on how responsibility is socially produced and sustained. It questions how staff members encourage parents to take responsibility, but keep them from interfering in medical matters, and how 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, people must learn to be responsible in an organizational world, and organizations must learn how to support responsible individuals.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

"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.