People have rights.
I n caring for pregnant women, the physician must consider the health of two patients who are biologically linked, yet individually viable. Although most pregnant women willingly accept some risk to their own health in order to optimize fetal outcome, occasionally women refuse treatment recommended for their fetus. When a pregnant woman refuses medical therapy which could be life-saving for her fetus, complicated ethical issues arise. Advances in medical technology have increased the physician's ability to direct medical procedures towards the fetus. Previously, physicians conceptualized the maternal-fetal dyad as one complex patient.