3.17 Fetal Position

I sided with House: Emma was a fool not to abort. Whether or not she had another chance at pregnancy, there's nothing pro-life to both mother and baby dying. She may really, really want this baby, but if it's risking her life? There's nothing to gain by her dying. If you abort, there's always another chance. It may be slim, but there's still a chance. If you die, guess what? That chance goes "poof!" Cuddy went slightly crazy in this ep. The scene in Wilson's office scared me. She was so gung-ho about saving the baby that she completely ignored the mother's health ("she's on a respirator; I can do whatever I want to her lungs!), the baby's future (corticosteroids probably damaged the baby's endocrine system), and the objectivity demanded by the system just to save one fetus. She was not the baby's doctor; she was the mother's. Between what she did to Emma and House, I would not let Cuddy be my primary care doc.

The thing is...I think that anyone in the position of being pro-choice has to recognize that yes, it is a choice. Emma believed her child had a right to live, and that's the only person authorized to make that decision, so isn't following her wishes in that case the only appropriate response to the situation? If anything, House is the person trying to tell her that she doesn't have a choice, and she is arguing that in fact, she does. House believed that her choice was between a) the fetus being terminated and b) both Emma and the fetus dying. Unlike in One Day, One Room, where he presented the decision to terminate as a moral imperative, in FP is was a practical one. The baby was going to die regardless of Emma's decision so it was a question of whether she was going to insist on dying with it. And, as he explained to Cuddy at the end, in 99.9% of such cases, refusing to terminate would result in the death of the mother and the fetus would still be dead. As for his switching to calling it a baby and a kid, I assumed that he called it a fetus when it wasn't viable and switched when it was.

I absolutely sided with House. Emma should've terminated the pregnancy. But... Cuddy was advocating for her patient. Emma was an intelligent woman. They'd laid out the choices for her. She obviously knew that if she died, she wouldn't be having another baby. She was willing to take the chance. That's her right.

She was willing to take the chance. That's her right. And she won out over House in making that choice in part because of Cuddy's support. I'm in the camp of liking this ep (more than OD,OR & W&D at least) despite the annoying Cameron & Cuddy, because its one instance in which patient autonomy wins out & I liked that Emma was willing to make both the decision & the potential sacrifice. House tends to get his way in making & imposing decisions in a lot of other cases & this was one of the instances where he didn't either win the patient over or damn the torpedoes & do what he wanted anyway. One of the things I actually liked about Cuddy was the scene when she interrupts Cameron & Chase doing the procedure. She clearly not only related to Emma's anxiety, but she knew how to reassure her in a way I'm not sure Cameron ever could have. And then Cameron running to House to get pissy about the procedure (& telling Cuddy about sex in the janitors closet) - flip side of the coin when she runs off to Cuddy about the paralysis of the fetus. Cameron strong? I saw a thirteen year old running between her parents & getting hissy with them both when she doesn't get things her way.

And she won out over House in making that choice in part because of Cuddy's support. But it was irresponsible as a physician for Cuddy to support the patient. If Cuddy had said, "No, this is too dangerous, you will die," then the patient might have realized that it was best to terminate. By trying to save the fetus, she changed the woman's chances of survival from 100% to 1%. That is unacceptable and unethical. Emma might have been a fool for choosing not to abort, but Cuddy was an enabler in a vicious way. 100% to 1% is just a change of odds I can't accept. Cameron strong? I saw a thirteen year old running between her parents & getting hissy with them both when she doesn't get things her way. Oh, saara_zaara, I love you so much for that analysis. It is made of the win.

I don't remember anyone saying this is her position and her choice so we have to work from there--I saw everyone except House sort of automatically assuming the fetus was a baby and rolling their eyes at House's insistance on using the word fetus instead of baby. Well, the ducklings and Wilson were with House in insisting they had to terminate the pregnancy to save Emma's life. I only remember Cuddy doing the eyeroll at the fetus/baby thing but I could be wrong. Oh and this may be a minor quibble, but with this ep and Cuddy's overall baby arc why is adoption never mentioned as an option? House's insistence on calling the unborn child a fetus was clearly to lower Emma's expectations should they have to terminate. He explicitly stated that's why he was doing it. I sided with House: Emma was a fool not to abort. Yep, I'm on the fence here. On one hand it was her decision, on the other hand it was a decision that had a 99.9% probability of killing her. Unlike in One Day, One Room, where he presented the decision to terminate as a moral imperative, in FP is was a practical one. Why did you have to remind me of that?? I hated it that he browbeat that woman into having an abortion. HATED it. One of the things I actually liked about Cuddy was the scene when she interrupts Cameron & Chase doing the procedure. She clearly not only related to Emma's anxiety, but she knew how to reassure her in a way I'm not sure Cameron ever could have. I liked that she was reassuring Emma, but what was with telling Cameron how to do the procedure when she clearly already knew? That looked like a power trip. I rewatched this last night and realized I'd forgotten how frantic Cuddy was. She was clearly being driven by her own emotions as a woman, not as a physician. Cameron strong? I saw a thirteen year old running between her parents & getting hissy with them both when she doesn't get things her way. And then they all ran to Uncle Wilson.

Some may perceive it 'irresponsible' of Cuddy to support the patient's wishes, but this patient is presented as an intelligent adult who has been fully informed of the risks to both the fetus/baby and herself, by House and, if not in such dramatic terms, by Cuddy herself. Let's give the patient some credit for her intelligence, her life experiences and personal wishes. At some point every doctor is going to have a patient (and likely more than one) who doesn't agree to follow the physician's treatment plan. The doc can make the decision to no longer treat that patient (this can be perceived by some as the doc having a G-d complex...kind of it's my way or the highway) or support a well-informed adult's decision to follow their own path. While I might think Cuddy is a bit overwrought in this episode, and I may not have made the same choices either as a treating physician (or the expectant mom) I don't think Cuddy is being unethical or her behavior unacceptable. These life situations are not just black or white, but have infinite shades of gray in between.

Let's give the patient some credit for her intelligence, her life experiences and personal wishes. At some point every doctor is going to have a patient (and likely more than one) who doesn't agree to follow the physician's treatment plan. The problem is that Cuddy was not giving this woman an accurate representation of her situation. She at no point alerted Emma to the gravity of her condition. There are two points here: 1) Cuddy did not alert the patient to the fact that she had a 99% chance of dying by failing to terminate the baby. 2) If Emma had known that, would she have reacted differently? The patient was an intelligent woman, but Cuddy was frankly blowing sunshine up her ass. House may have appeared gruff and too eager to terminate, but it was Cuddy who was acting unrealistic about the outcome. If a patient makes a decision, it is your duty as a doctor to respect it. But if your doctor misleads you, it is no longer a fully informed decision.

That's where I had a problem with Cuddy's attitude - her overwhelming need to believe that everything would be fine if they just solved the problem was completely compromising her judgment, until things got really bad. When they actually came up with the surgical solution, though, Cuddy seemed to be shifting back to normal - she's the one warning Emma that they could both die, and I'm like, you couldn't bring this up earlier? Oh and this may be a minor quibble, but with this ep and Cuddy's overall baby arc why is adoption never mentioned as an option? I've honestly wondered about this. Seriously, half the kids of the doctors in my department were imported from Asia. If Cuddy's not seriously considering that as an option (yet), then I'd be curious to know why.

1) Cuddy did not alert the patient to the fact that she had a 99% chance of dying by failing to terminate the baby. I wouldn't get too hung up on the 99% number here as I think House was just using that to be dramatic. Also, the patient was clearly aware that she had about two days to live if she didn't terminate, and she decided to give the doctors every minute she could to try to figure something out. It was very risky, however nothing was stopping her from changing her mind if no hope was to be had. Emma was not some idiot making a suicide run, she was an intelligent woman who took a very calculated risk. Many may perceive that as a wildly foolish risk, but it was her decision to take it or not. Cuddy only honored her wishes.

Oh and this may be a minor quibble, but with this ep and Cuddy's overall baby arc why is adoption never mentioned as an option? Thank you for bringing that up, I have major issues with that.

Well, other people already said it better than I could, but to Emma it's not a fetus, it is a baby. Because she's chosen to keep it. To her, it was probably a 'baby' from the minute she learned she was pregnant. That's been Emma's position all along. Because that's her choice to make. That's what the choice comes down to, isn't it? How you feel about the fetus. Is it your future child? Or is it an unwanted pregnancy? Whether the word 'baby' is used or not doesn't change what the object in question is, it just conveys how you feel about it. Hope you don't think I'm being arrogant here, but I think this actually proves my argument? If what you say here is true, House switching from "fetus" to "baby" after its hand grabbed him conveys that how House felt about it was changed (from "fetus" to "baby" with all the connotations attached to both words) by the touched by a fetus moment. In other words, the "touching" moment (hee!) brought House around to Emma's way of thinking about it. Which is what I object to in the first place--both politically and artistically. I agree that his telling Emma not to thank him and his statistics speech to Cuddy do show that he hasn't gone all "Pro-Life" for good but that just leaves me even more confused about what the "touched" and his switch of terms to Emma is supposed to mean. Oh and this may be a minor quibble, but with this ep and Cuddy's overall baby arc why is adoption never mentioned as an option? Oh lordy, do I ever have serious issues about that one! First, I think there is something just plain weird and wrong--or at least highly questionable! :wink: -- about the obsession with one's own biological child and of over-valuing the importance of pregnancy, labor and delivery (easy for me to say since I have had my two pregnancies and biological children) when there are so many poor kids out there who don't have parents. But then I also have issues with the whole adopting third world babies because they are somehow "better" than homegrown ones and the taking them out of their culture and making rich little americans out of them...... Yeah you probably don't want to get me started on it.... :roll:

this patient is presented as an intelligent adult who has been fully informed of the risks to both the fetus/baby and herself, by House and, if not in such dramatic terms, by Cuddy herself. That's probably in part why I like this ep, I like Emma (versus Eve, for example) and she's presented from the start as someone who, as a non-physician, seems to be relatively well informed & who retains the information - for example, she remembered the FAST mnemonic. I had the sense that she absolutely understood the risks of what she was doing in very clear terms (after all, she's had other failed attempts & she knows she's in a high risk position from the get-go). And the adoption thing - word, that's a complaint of mine in other eps too. I can't think of a single instance on the show where its been raised (mind you, my memory sucks).

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