Is the fetus a patient? Medical models of the relationship between a pregnant woman and an unborn child (in Polish)

Abstract

The paper traces the factors which promote a change in the relationship model between a pregnant woman and a fetus, from a complex one-patient medical model into a two-patient model. In the second model, as its name suggests, the prenatal phases of human life gain the moral status of an independent patient. Such an approach has adverse effects on a pregnant woman; these effects are mentioned in my polemic with Susan Mattingly. In the second part of the paper I analyze the attempt to offer a theoretical justification of the status of fetus as a patient taken up by Frank Chervenak and Laurence McCullough, in which the elements of the complex one-patient medical model of a pregnant woman and a fetus are preserved. My analysis shows the failure of such an approach.