Amber Marlowe, a Pennsylvania woman, reviewed the risks and decided she’d rather not have a C-section. A friend of hers had died from a C-section gone bad, leaving Marlowe understandably nervous about the procedure. (Doctors also claimed that she and her husband had religious objections to surgery, but the Marlowes have said that isn’t true).
So the doctors presented options to the patient. The patient chose an option the doctor didn’t like. That’s the end of it, right?
Wrong. The hospital, Wilkes-Barre General, went to a judge and got a secret order, subjecting Marlowe to a C-section by force, regardless of her wishes.
Fortunately, the Marlowes were able to reach another hospital to give birth and – despite the doomsday predictions of the first hospital’s doctors – gave vaginal birth to a healthy baby.
Pendolphi and several other attorneys questioned Conahan’s order, saying they knew of no legal authority that gave the judge the power to appoint a guardian for a fetus.
“Even if you think the fetus is a person, in America we don’t allow the courts to decide between two people and order one to undergo surgery for the other,” said Lynn Paltrow, an attorney with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York.
I thought this quote, from a pro-life activist, was particularly good at illustrating the pro-life position.
(Okay, I took that quote a bit out of context – but not much.)
If this were a man refusing to have surgery – even surgery his doctors felt was essential – there’d be no question of forcing him to undergo the surgery. Even if the surgery were for a kidney transplant for his son – without which, the man’s son would die – no one would even suggest surgery against his will.
Yet somehow, get a woman pregnant and too many people believe she’s lost all rights. This sort of case is why pro-lifers have a reputation for thinking of women as holding tanks for babies..
Court-ordered cesareans aren’t all that unusual. The woman, who is usually in labor, is rarely represented, and the judge may be awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from a lawyer who insists that the baby is going to die in the next five minutes if the doctors don’t save him from his uncaring mother. There are also several cases where the woman escaped and safely gave birth vaginally despite the doctor’s predictions.
When you consider that the US has a 26% cesarean rate, the worst in the developed world; that even obstetricians admit that at least half of those are unnecessary; that unnecessary surgery is a Bad Thing; and that doctors expect patients to do what they are told; it’s surprising that it doesn’t happen daily at every hospital in the country.
There have been many similar examples in the past, some much more gruesome. For some people women ARE holding tanks, or aquaria, either empty or filled. Once this is understood, all the really odd policies make excellent sense. For the holders of this view, that is.
Unbelievable, this medicalization of pregnancy and birth. Why any woman with a healthy pregnancy isn’t convinced that a home birth with a midwife is the best choice is beyond me.
I like to think of myself as a terrarium.
Emily, pregnancy is normal, but birthgiving is unusually difficult for humans (as compared to other animals). So it makes sense to me that a woman with a healthy pregnancy should still give birth in a hospital since complications are always possible. But then I don’t have any personal experience with women giving birth, so maybe I have some skewed view on this.
Emily, without the medicalization of pregnancy I wouldn’t exist. To anyone with a family history of poor or rural people, this cannot be stressed enough. I have listened to the family history of women hvaing 6, 7, or 8 pregnancies and burying half and miscarrying the rest. Not to mention the not infrequent deaths of the mother. (My great great grandmother died 3 moonths after giving birth to her 16th child of which only 7 lived past 5. Her body said no more at age 35.) Being pregnant was a time of joy and trepidation. I realise you stipulate healthy pregnancy but without adequate pre-natal care, many don’t know if they are healthy, “normal”, or not. And still complications can occur once the powerful forces of labor begins. Some women of course have no trouble at all, but a surprising number do. Human pelvises are simply too small given the size of our already premature fetuses. It’s an evolutionary trade-off that we (women and offspring) pay for dearly.
Wow. The reasoning for the C-section was that the baby was large. What crap. I had two 9 1/2 pound babies and one that was 10 1/2 pounds. With the biggest, they offered a C-section, but I turned it down, and had no problems with delivering Thor (10 pounds, red-headed, Thor really fit his name).
But I don’t think Emily’s comments apply in this case — A baby with at an estimated 13 pounds should be vaginally delivered in a hospital because of the risks. And even the most routine and normal of pregancies can turn dangerous suddenly, so we as women should not have only these two choices:
at home, where if there is an emergency we lose precious time getting medical help, or
at the hospital, where they can get a court order stating the hospital has the final say over my body and my baby.
Once my first child was born, my husband and I made the difficult decision that if it came down to me or the unborn baby, it would be me, because I already had a life (my son) totally dependent on me. But it’s scary to think that some doctor who is so completely unconnected with my life can decide the opposite, and save the baby over the mother. He gets to walk away, and my husband is left with two or three small children with no mom. That’s not acceptable to me. I am a control freak, and I want that control over decisions that can impact my life so much. Or frankly, even not so much.
One of the things that helped my wife and I decide which hospital to go to for the birth of our son (we never really considered home birth – my wife wanted the epidural, and as far as I know, they aren’t available at home) was that the hospital we eventually chose advertised the fact that it rarely did c-sections. I hadn’t heard about hospital mandated c-sections, but before our next child, I’ll make sure their policy isn’t to seek them.
Julie – great choice for your son’s name.
Emily – Personally, I agree with you, but since I’m not the one actually giving birth my opinion doesn’t really count – my wife felt more comfortable in a hospital (and, of course, the epidural) – so the decision was up to her. Mothers should be free to choose hospital or home birth – or to breast or formula feed – without being badgered by zealots.
I found your site while searching on Yahoo for examples of blogs. I am trying to start my own and I’m trying to learn how this works.
Truly bizarre and does not represent my pro-life view at all. But, we’re all alike, right, Amp?
I’m curious about the extent of the role that medical insurance played in this.
Jen, I wouldn’t say all pro-lifers are alike.
However, consider this quote from Colleen Connell: “It’s well-established common law that an adult has the right to make medical decisions on their own behalf. Pregnancy does not strip a woman of that legal right.”
I don’t see how anyone who is pro-life, in the sense of wanting abortion legally banned, could agree with Ms. Connell’s statement. So in that limited sense, all pro-lifers are alike. Pro-lifers may differ on exactly where they draw the line between medical decisions a pregnant woman can and can’t make for herself, but they all agree that in many common cases, the goverment rather than the woman should be the decision-maker.
Pingback: Appalachia Alumni Association
Pingback: Malice Aforethought