Read this story about a mom who underwent chemo treatment while 14 weeks pregnant and tell me whether it challenges you to examine your feelings and assumptions about the unborn.
I write a political blog, and this isn't it. I sometimes touch on the politics around health insurance, but mostly not. That being said, I don't make a secret that I'm a big ol' blue-stater.
Yet, this story made me uncomfortable. Read on to find out why...
At 14 weeks this woman is within the time where I believe it is her choice to end her pregnancy.
Yet, it made me really uncomfortable to imagine her going through a course of chemo (and they don't tell you how many weeks it lasted) that doctors acknowledge would also impact her unborn child. I'm happy for her that the outcome was positive (although at 7 weeks it might be too soon to know if the baby is totally unaffected) but it still feels somewhat disturbing.
It reminds me of when my 15 year old cat had lymphoma. The doctor explained the kind of chemo they do on animals: they do it only strong enough to try to push the cancer into remission, while keeping side-effects pretty mild and short-lasting. They don't do strong enough doses to really eradicate the cancer...because unlike a human who can choose to undergo such severe treatment and its side effects, the animal isn't making the choice and won't understand the cost/benefit analysis that people put into deciding on their treatment path.
There's that word: "choice."
I think it's something about the extended nature of chemo treatments. And that the story avoids telling you how long her treatment lasted makes me feel like it probably lasted a while...maybe even into her third trimester.
And something about that starts to feel torturous.
Anyone else find themselves feeling conflicted?
I don't know that I have strong feelings on this. What are her other options? Would you feel better if she chose to abort the baby? Should she forego the treatment until the baby is born?
Posted by: Bostoniangirl | July 15, 2005 at 08:54 AM
I don't think I made my point very well: I mean it challenges my assumptions about abortion. If I get uncomfortable with the idea of putting a fetus through chemo, how can I not be uncomfortable with abortion in general?
If I'm feeling concerned for the lack of the fetus' ability to "choose" to go through chemo, then how can I not be equally concerned about their lack of "choice" to be aborted.
That was more where I was going with that...all about me and my thought processes. I honestly could never try to tell that woman what to do. And we hardly know enough of the story and her other options and their chances of success to form an opinion anyway.
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | July 15, 2005 at 08:58 AM