Homework #45: Responding to Comments

Response to Bjorn: You believe that a fetus is considered a separate being eight weeks after fertilization, thus the mother has no right to endanger the fetus. While I understand that viewed as a separate being, this is a completely logical argument, it is important to look at the science of the situation. A fetus is completely dependent on the mother for food, oxygen, blood, or in other words life. If a country were to be funded by another, to the point where one monitored the other's resources, the providing country would have control over the fate of the inferior country. Why is a fetus living off of the mother any different? While it is a human life, that country is human lives.

Response to Devin: I agree with you when you said that some women will risk having a stillbirth rather than having a cesarean section. I do not think that doctors should be blamed for the stillbirth at all either, it is a mother's choice. Perhaps if doctors were not blamed so heavily for letting the mother decide how she wants to go about her own birth, then there would be less forceful actions and doctor dominance in childbirth. I understand that a mother would be happier if she had a child through cesarean than a stillbirth vaginally, but I believe in the grand scheme of things, the entire experience might feel more empowering with a vaginal birth. It seems like that has been the reoccurring theme in anecdotes of vaginal birth.

Response to Lindsay: I think this is a really interesting point. I'm sure in terms of education, it happens a lot with college educated women who have taken a women studies class. Otherwise there is very little information available to women about pregnancy and birth. I would expect these women to be most likely to refuse a cesarean section and get themselves into this situation. Women without a college education or some sort of advising prior to birth might not understand the effects of a cesarean section on a women or her child. Without this education a doctor is the dominant figure, the one that a woman would feel that she could entirely trust. However we must realize that we are all human and sometimes would rather work for our own convenience rather than the overall health of another person.