Frank Boehm, M.D., is professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, and the director of maternal/foetal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also chairman of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Ethics Committee. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt Medical School and the Yale-New Haven Hospital Internship and Residency programme and is a specialist in high-risk pregnancy, called perinatology.