Biggest problem was that they did it on Scrubs a week or so ago, and I assume the shows have more than just me as a crossover audience. I’m used to seeing a mystery disease hit a number of medical shows - but usually it takes long enough to have kind of forgotten about it.
I liked their reactions to the photographs of each other. That was nice.
Extremely valid observation.
In my opinion, some of the reactions above suggest that at least some people are disingenuous when they claim that they favor choice for the woman as the only deciding factor. In the story line under discussion, the woman made a choice, and she is excoriated here for it.
Apparently it’s ok to be in favor of choice only when the woman in question makes the correct choice, to abort.
The mother made a stupid choice which prevented the doctors from being able to properly do their job (which would have been terminating the pregnancy). What made it a pro-life polemic was the fact that an idiotic “choice” which should have resulted in the woman’s death was justified by pure plot contrivance and sanctimonious moralism. Instead of showing the real results of that kind of ignorant, self-righteous “choice,” they fabricated a miraculous ending which would never actually happen in real life and sends the strong message that any woman who terminates a pregnancy to save her own life is evil and that everything will be fine if she just hangs in there. The ending was a lie. The baby hand scene was a lie. The message to women was hateful and dangerous. The responsible thing to would have been to show this bitch dying as a result of her dumbass decision. That would have sent the right message.
Who is looking for mileage (whatever that means)? It’s either a choice or it isn’t. Doesn’t matter if you agree with the choice or not. Thats sort of the point of it being a choice.
I certainly didn’t see it that way. They told her she would die if she didn’t abort, and at the time, the doctors believed it. Now, the fact that they came up with something that worked came after the fact, and they were all eager to see if it would solve the problem. I think people were surprised that she was willing to die for a “barely a chance in hell” possibility that the baby would be ok. I didn’t hear anyone say abortion was the way to go for someone who wanted a baby.
I thought it was a really good episode. I liked watching Cuddy seeing what it’s like to play the medical maverick for once. The pro-life/pro-choice question never entered my mind once while watching it. (I would imagine that if the writers saw this thread, they’d be pleased to see that people are all over the place as to determining what the episode’s supposed slant was.)
The scene with House and the baby’s finger worked for me, mainly because it DIDN’T cause him to have some great, fantastic epiphany about the sanctity of life. He never stopped believing that terminating the pregnancy was the best course of action, and had no problem letting the photographer know this.
I’m not the biggest fan of the Chase/Cameron affair. I’m not impressed with the chemistry, and I’d hate to think that love might cause Chase to become less amusingly self-absorbed. The best I can say is that the way it was leaked to the rest of the staff did not involve some ridiculous plot machinations reminiscent of a bad I Love Lucy episode. House just blabbed it out – simple office gossip.
It didn’t strike me until later that the title of the Replacements song playing at the beginning is “Bastards of Young.” That can’t be a coincidence.
You’re looking for a message? Try an after school special. This is a show where miraculous medical shit happens every week. Every week House fucks up and almost kills the patient before he pulls it out in the end. This time there was a pregnant woman involved.
My problem isn’t the choice per se, but what I believe is an irresponsible message that life-of-the-mother abortions are never really necessary along with the subtle implication that any woman who would choose to save her own life is less virtuous than a deluded nutjob who chooses not to.
Hear hear! Although, I did like the exchange between Cuddy/House [paraphrased] “Sometimes .1 is bigger than 9.9/No, it’s always smaller.” Nah, on second though, that exchange could have worked - and perhaps made more poignant - if death had been a result.
Everyone is acting like a woman made a choice. A woman did not make a choice. The writers of the show made a character make a choice. They then proceded to pull on the heartstrings, and wrapped the whole thing up with a deus ex machina ending.
A real woman could make the same choice, but she and her baby would both be dead.
Sometimes. Sometimes not. Women decide to go through with high risk pregnancies everyday. Women put there lives at risk for their unborns everyday. It is not unusual. Of course the circumstances are extreme in this case because it is House. There wouldn’t be a show if it wasn’t an extreme case. Thats the point of the show. That and to give House internal conflict. With wisecracks and vicodin.
Sure, but I’m not sure that “House” should be in the business of encouraging them to do it. This is a show about a doctor who, week after week, makes a set of wrong diagnoses until 47 minutes past the hour, when he usually, finally gets it right, and is still considered an unusually qualified physician (and sometimes surgeon, no less). Any show this whacked out should not be making moral preachments.
I didn’t buy the little hand grasping House’s finger, but I rather enjoyed seeing Cuddy coming apart at the seams for a change.
"I forgot to Tivo **Alien**."I saw no moral preachments. It was stated over and over that it was not the wise course of action. In fact I never heard even Cuddy make any anti-abortion statements. I saw no preaching in this episode. Maybe not a realistic outcome but that is true of 90% of the episodes. The show is there for our amusement not to teach lessons. I think you are looking to deep into it or through your own tinted glasses.
All women should be so lucky as to have House as their doctor. The option of fetal surgery is open to a very small percentage of women in the world. If it wasn’t for him and a few doctors like him, there most likely would have been an abortion or a funeral. Most women aren’t stupid enough to opt for their own death.
I did. So, what, pistols at dawn?
Can you give an example of someone making a moral preachment?
I’ve already made my opinion of this episode known, and this has gotten way the hell too heavy for CS. But, one last time (and I really mean it), robot baby hand and deus ex machina happy ending were, IMO, moral preachments. If you and Loach don’t think so, I have no problem with that. Really.
Well I do damn it!
Well actually I don’t. Fair enough, agree to disagree and all that. I saw it as an unlikely ending which is the whole point of the show but not at all preachy.
I would think that a woman undergoing major abdominal surgery (in order for them to get to the baby in order to do surgery on the baby) would be under general anaesthesia with a paralytic, which would prevent her from moving about on the table. Presumably the baby would be getting the same drugs via the umbilical cord (and, considering they would be doing surgery on the baby, you would sure HOPE the baby was fully anaesthetized.)
So how is this unconscious, paralyzed baby supposed to be playing with House’s finger?
Trust me, I thought the photography was beautifully moving — but at the same time, I recognized it as intentional heartstring-tugging at the very least, if not intentional anti-abortion propaganda. After all, didn’t House refer to the baby as “the baby” rather than “the fetus” for the first time after the surgery?