Posted on 04/03/2007 7:44:25 PM PDT by Dave Burns
Very Pro Life.
A pregnant woman's unborn baby is literally killing her. The father btw, is a gay neurologist who provided artificial insemination.
So, this woman's life is in danger. Either the doctors terminate the pregnancy and save her life, or both mother and 21 week old unborn baby were going to die. But she refuses to terminate and insists on saving her child.
23 weeks is considered viable for an unborn child, the unborn child needs at the very least two more weeks. But the mother has only two days until this pregnancy will cause her liver to shut down.
Given her insistence, The only other option is an extremely risky surgery (to both mother and child) on the unborn baby while still attached via umbilical cord to the mother.
It's their only shot to save the woman if she insists on saving the baby.
The surgery is performed
She actually goes into cardiac arrest during this, and there's a few moments where they are about to cut the umbilical cord in attempt to save her. But on a third attempt at resuscitation, they are able to revive the mother without doing harm to the child.
After the surgery the woman is able to continue with the pregnancy.
Throughout this time House has refused to call the unborn child "a baby," and insists on using the term "fetus." But as he performs the surgery, there is a moment where the unborn child reaches up and touches House's finger. After that he calls it "a baby"
OMG even Dr House has heart
SHOCKER
I saw it & there were some moments when I had tears in my eyes, I still choke up thinking about it.
Major kudos to the writers of this episode!
I watch this show sporadically, but I’ve always gotten the impression that while House has this cold, impenetrable exterior, the guy isn’t heartless.
I’m glad to see the writers show him having a heart and learning that a fetus is indeed a baby.
No, they already did one where House talked a pro-life rape victim into killing her baby.
Nice to see some balance, though.
It was the most pro-life hour of episodic network TV I’ve ever seen.
Comments from Television Without Pity:
I hated that urban legend about the fetus grabbing the surgeon’s finger. This show should be above such cheap tricks.
I would have had more respect for the writers if they had let the baby and/or mom die. House connects with the fetus and sees it as a baby cause it clutched his hand is such emo crap. What did we learn?
Even though it may be false, it was still sweet to see the baby clutch House, and to see that it did affect House.
I really could have done without the baby-hand-grabbing scene, though.
Also ... the fetal surgery/hand thing comes for a real occurrence. Snopes has a link here with a photo for background info.
I agree that the baby’s hand scene was a little sappy. I usually love suspending disbelief but that (though someone upthread said there’s proof it really happened) was just campy and I had to roll my eyes.
I’m sorry but that hand thing was stupid and a half! WTF?!
The fetus, like the mother, is sedated during these procedures. The photo upon which the urban myth is based comes from a surgery where the fetus’s hand flopped out of the incision and the surgeon tucked it back in.
Just once, I’d like to see a pregnant patient say, “I want to LIVE! I love my life and I’m not going to sacrifice it for someone I’ve never even met. No matter what you have to do to the fetus, make sure that I live!
It would also be nice if a woman who valued herself that way wasn’t treated as a monster
I was very ambivalent about this episode. Part of me found it consistently dramatically compelling, even the fetus fist grab, and part of me bristled at the all too predictable deification of the fetus. I can’t personally relate to anyone who would so gravely endanger the health of a full grown person for the sake of a fetus whose death would have almost certainly been inevitable.
What I meant, is that the setup of the fetal hand comes from an actual photo. It’s not just an image that the writers made up. There is a real photo that inspired it — albeit as the link noted the reality behind the photo isn’t treacly crap.
What a bullshit episode - thanks for the Veritas Society commercial, House.
They lurk about at FR, so they will appreciate the kudos.
We will win this battle through the advancement in medical technology. God works in mysterious ways.
pro-life bump
While your sharing your thoughts, would you like to answer two questions? ... 1) Do you believe there is a human spirit? 2) When does the human spirit take up residence wiht the alive unborn human?
However - it is still a moving story & a true story - the baby in the picture is 21 weeks old in the womb when the surgery is performed on it. It has 5 perfectly formed fingers and held onto the doctor with them - clearly it is a HUMAN BEING - as science advances - things like this prove that it is a "baby" - not a blob of tissue.
The episode was corny in places - but I thought it was very touching. If it made one person think differently about a "fetus", then it is a very good thing.
Tonite, same thing, but half-way through the episode, I started to watch because of the obvious struggles and conflicts among the key characters.
I didn't look down to the computer screen for the final 15 minutes.
The part where he was working during the surgery to see the baby's bloody little hand appear and then grasp, and he became surprised---to which someone in the OR notices--he mumbles "I just realized I forgot to tivo Alien" was the best line in the show.
Why do you assume the comments that I clearly identified as being from TWOP were from me? I’m obviously pro-life.
Before you all flame denydenydeny too hard, I believe those were quotes from another forum expressing the reactions to the show.
I have assumed all of post #10 was quoted from TWOP. Don’t you want to have a dialog about the issue?
I’m sorry, I wasn’t flaming you - but I did think those comments were from you. I admit I was a bit confused because your prior post was very pro-life. Anyway, it did cause me to go to snopes.com to read the real story on it - it is an amazing story & the picture that goes with it - says it all.
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