3.03 Informed Consent
From tv.com: House puts a well-known medical researcher through a battery of tests to determine why he collapsed in his lab. When the team is unable to diagnose the problem, the doctor asks the team to help him end his life. House is forced to use his cane again after the ketamine has worn off as he deals with a clinic patient's teenaged daughter who has a crush on him.

I have to say, I really, really don't like the whole POTW plotline in this ep. I know it's supposed to be deep and meaningful and whatever, but it just annoys me. I don't even know why. The clinic-patient daughter is fun though... :-)

Remember how he congratulates Cameron for standing up for what she believes in? Wasn't he in the coma for most of her rants, etc?

Yeah, he was. I could be wrong but I think he meant the rant she had just done at his bedside about him experimenting on babies.

That scene makes me nuts. Ezra Powell says "Good for you. Finally standing up for something; acting on what you believe." But when she took the skin sample without informed consent (and without anesthetizing the area) she wasn't standing up for something she believes in. She was standing up for something he believes in. Her argument about consent (in the paper she wrote in SDL) is that it is almost impossible for people without medical training to understand all the ramifications. Dr. Powell was one patient who had the training necessary. So, by Cameron's own standards, there was no excuse for not getting consent from him. So what she gets praise for from Ezra (and again from House in the final scene) was for going against her beliefs. Of course, the entire episode bothers me a lot because it isn't about assisted suicide (which I favor). It was euthanasia (which I don't). Ezra could have demanded to be discharged (AOR) and injected himself when he got home, before he was too weak to do so. He could have asked House (who had agreed to help him) to "accidentally" leave some extra morphine and then go establish an alibi for the entire Diagnostics team while he did it himself. Instead he made one of his doctors do it for him.

This ep did have some problems (which Poeia has aptly described), but overall it's one of my favorite non-Chasecentric eps. I loved that they were dealing with the issue (even if they were a bit fuzzy on exactly which issue). I loved the way House handled it, especially the teacher-y way he discussed his own stance on the issue only with Wilson and left his fellows to argue their own stances without being influenced by House. I love what it tells us about House (that he does support assisted suicide -- in certain cases -- and has done it before, and Wilson and Cuddy both know it). I utterly adore the morphine-trick scene with the fellows in the patient's room. I don't like the fact that, once again, Cuddy assumes that House has done "something bad" and House lets her continue to believe it. Actually, in this case, both her assumption and his failure to correct it were pretty appropriate; it's just the way it's part of a pattern that I don't like. I remember hearing somewhere the idea that it wasn't Cameron who "did the deed" but Wilson. I didn't see any evidence for that, but I do wonder if House really expected it to be Cameron. He went to the chapel after all; as an atheist, isn't she the least likely of the fellows to seek -whatever- there? Obviously, he did find her there, but could he have been expecting to find someone else? Foreman was pretty vehement in his opinion so I don't think he'd be in the running. But I did wonder whether Chase would have done it if he had been the attending. Initially, I thought he would NOT have done it as a fellow, brushing it aside as not his responsibility even if he did think it was the right decision. But looking at the entire Chase-growth arc through season 3 into now, I'm no longer quite so certain of that. Still, House must have done at least a little research into which of his fellows was wandering the halls that night, so if he thinks Cameron was the one... I just don't have a good handle on how it fits into Cameron's development arc.

as an atheist, isn't she the least likely of the fellows to seek -whatever- there? Yeah, I didn't get why she was there. I'm not saying she had no right to be there but if you don't believe what comfort would you find in a chapel? That's just a question, not a judgement. It always confused me that she, an atheist, was crying in the chapel. Maybe she thought no one would find her there and she just wanted to be alone.

Maybe because whatever else it is, a chapel is likely the quietest room in the hospital? And it's pretty much built for comfort and self-reflection, regardless of what your beliefs are. That's true and makes sense.

one of my favorite things about House is that he isn't interested in other people's opinion of him Yes, I like that about House. What I don't like is that Cuddy, one of the people who thinks she knows House well enough to decide what's best for him, is wrong so often, yet still has the power as his boss and doctor to make potentially life-changing decisions for him based on her incorrect assumptions. And my sense of justice gets all riled up about the fact that House is judged by the world based not on the good and the bad that he actually does, but on bad that he hasn't really done without consideration of the often-unnoticed good that he does. And that House has to live with the consequences of the world's judgment. He may not care, but I do! it showed that she was willing to part with her own beliefs and doctor according to what her patient needed Hmm. Thanks -- will have to think about this next time I watch it. I tend not to pay too much attention to Cameron, so it's not surprising I wouldn't get it at first. :-)

if you don't believe what comfort would you find in a chapel? It's also a place where no one will think it strange or bother you if you're crying.