Maternal-Fetal Treatments - Introduction

Catholic moral teaching holds that human life begins at conception and therefore, women who are pregnant have certain ethical responsibilities toward safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of their fetuses. This moral obligation at times requires that the pregnant woman accept reasonable risks to herself to protect the interests of her fetus. This responsibility, however, is not absolute. Making ethical decisions about medical treatment involves weighing the various treatment options and balancing the risks and benefits of each to the fetus and the mother. The higher the risk is to either the fetus or the mother and the more uncertain the benefit is to either, the more problematic it is to accept the treatment.