It was clear that she wasn't going to make it. Lauren was about 25, and was nearing the end of her pregnancy when she sustained a cardiac arrest. If she weren't pregnant, I would have called for the end of the code, and walked out of the room to speak with her husband. But this was different. We had one more patient to consider: her baby.

Medically, it is possible to perform an emergency C-section and revive the infant. However, that's legally known as an "operation," which requires that consent be obtained if this is feasible. Since her husband was standing just outside the door, it was indeed feasible, so I felt obligated to present this option to him. I also felt morally compelled to let him make the decision. I thought it would be unconscionably presumptuous of me to walk out and say that his wife was dead, but that I'd decided to deliver his child anyway. He didn't hesitate: don't do the C-section.

I never asked him why he'd made that decision. Was it because he didn't want to raise a child alone? Was it because the child might be a constant reminder of his departed wife? Was it because the child, at least indirectly, was likely responsible for the death of his wife? Or was it because the child, even if he had lived, would have likely sustained brain damage as a result of a lack of oxygen?

I never asked him, but he told me anyway. That was his wife, but it wasn't his child.

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