Reference no: EM133274550

Question

A pregnant woman with a history of cancer diagnoses reports to the hospital with shortness of breath. Her doctors discover she has several tumors in her lungs and poor prognosis; her care team believes she will only live a few more weeks. Her fetus is 22 weeks old, which is too young to be a viable preterm infant and she may die before it becomes viable. The pregnant mother wishes to keep her child in utero to increase the fetus' chance of survival after she dies; the woman's husband feels it is important to perform an immediate cesarean section (c-section) so she can receive an emergency round of chemotherapy and radiation. Should the woman's physicians honor the wishes of the pregnant mother or intervene and perform the c-section to treat her cancer?