Abortion Case Study

Selective termination of pregnancy is a case where Ms Q has been trying to get pregnant and uses a fertility drug to help her. The fertility drug she takes increases the incidence of multiple births from 1 percent to 8 percent. Ms Q becomes pregnant and at nine weeks gestation an ultrasound reveals that she has triplets. After hearing this Ms Q wants to terminate two of them and keep one. She decides this because she wants a child but doesn 't feel capable of caring for more than one. If she cannot do a selective termination she then wants to abort all of them. Ms Q’s doctor,Dr G, has three choices: 1) terminate all three through abortion: 2) selective termination of two of the triplets: 3) refuse to terminate the pregnancy. Within this case two questions

Angela Holder expresses, “ No physical is legally obligated to provide treatment he or she deems unwise, dangerous, or not indicated simply because a patient wants to.” (Crigger 82) Even though Ms Q want to abort two or more of the fetuses, Dr G does not have to agree with it and doesn 't have to fulfill Ms Q’s request but he does have to respect that it is her choice and her right. Mary Henifin explains, “Self-determination and autonomy apply to patient’s ‘negative’ right to refuse as well as her “positive” right to choose among beneficial procedures, yet these principles do not guarantee the right to demand non-beneficial or harmful treatment.”(83) Some physicians may view this situation as a beneficial procedure and will help achieve Ms Q’s request but Dr G should view this situation as non-beneficial due to Ms Q wanting to select terminated or abort all of the fetuses just because she thinks she wont be a good mother. Even though Ms Q could still satisfy her request with another physical, Dr G will have done all that he could and will have chosen what he believes is