Fetal Position

How did the photographer develop photos while lying deathly ill in her hospital bed? She photographs the doctors from her bed and the photos suddenly appear as 8x10 glossies on her bedside table. Even a Polaroid won't do that.

I can see that the writers were eager to include the patient's profession as part of the plot, but did they think the audience would not see this error? I also doubt the doctors or nurses had time to rush to the local drugstore to pick up her photos.

Still, overall the episode was intriguing. I had never heard of the disease that plagued the patient, and the conflicting beliefs of House and Cuddy on how to treat the patient added drama and interest to the episode.

To begin with, I am watching and writing about this episode in 2017 because unlike Dr. House, I did set the TiVo to record. "Fetal Position" (Season Three) is one of the more thought provoking episodes; It is short on the usual jokes and competition/insults between House and his underlings, and features Dr. Cuddy out of her administrator role and into an active physician's role. The episode was written to feature Dr. Lisa Cuddy and House in a role reversal. There are moments in this episode that could be viewed as maudlin if one favored the usual cynical themes of the show's driving force. There is the "touching" moment in surgery that I won't describe further in case anyone, like me, is 10 years behind in their TV viewing. There is also the scene where the recovering mother is hanging photos in her home of the doctors who treated her. But importantly, we also get to see a little bit of the compassionate side of Gregory House, who usually does an excellent job of covering up any emotions. In this episode his job is to take 2nd chair to his boss, who empathizes, to a fault as House reminds her, a middle aged woman's desire to have a child at any cost. (She almost kills two patients to help secure the wishes of one of them) In 9 out of 10 times, House tells her, both the mother and her baby would have died. Some people have written off this episode as being some kind of pro-life statement. In my opinion, they have seen what they wanted to see, rather than what the writers of the show intended. It is no more pro life than it is pro Galápagos Islands. I enjoyed this episode because it allowed the actress Lisa Edelstein to display her considerable skills and to illustrate how often doctors can be wrong by allowing their own emotions to affect their judgement. House takes over her role by scolding her for her lack of judgement.

Let me start off by saying this: I am pro-choice, but only if the situation calls for an abortion - e.g. rape/mother or father or parents unable to provide for baby due to extreme poverty/baby won't survive past its first year etc. To me, the whole point of being pro- choice is not about "killing fetuses".

Now that we got that out of the way, let me elaborate on my review title.

I see that a lot of reviewers commented how this episode was strongly "pro-life". But they have failed to consider the following points:

House didn't try to kill the fetus/baby simply because he's pro-choice. He wanted to save what can be saved - in this case, there was a high likelihood that both of them would die if he didn't kill the fetus/baby. (99.9%) His reasoning was sound and objective, and he was not acting out of character in order to "fit the writer's agenda".

Cuddy, the heroine of the episode, was being completely emotional and put her in the patient's shoes because this was HER she was saving; this was her dream, and if this lady doesn't make it, then she won't make it either. She needed to keep both of them alive in order to keep her own dream alive, too. How is this pro-life? And to the reviewer who claims this was Cuddy "who, by the sole virtue of being a woman (and therefore having "deeper feelings" about motherhood), was able to do House's job better than House..." - where did you see this? I'm a woman but I fail to see how the writer indicated this in this episode. I only saw Cuddy being her usual self here. If you watched the episode called "Humpty Dumpty", you'd remember what an emotional person she is concerning matters close to her heart.

Unlike what one reviewer mentioned, House was not reduced to "near tears" - that moment was one that made him feel something - this tiny life form he usually refers to as a "parasite" was able to touch his heart for a moment. Sure, House went back to his old objective ways as soon as the mother went into a fatal state and difficult decisions had to be made, but I think his reaction came out more as a result of his decades of being House, and not because that touching moment didn't affect him in any way. Why else would he be shown touching his fingers that were once grasped by the fetus/baby, while being immersed in seemingly deep thoughts?

I can go on, but I don't want to waste everyone's time. I've said enough to show my side of the argument.

All in all, one of my favourite episodes so far! Very thought provoking.

This woman, full of life, a successful photographer who is pregnant, has a stroke while at her job. This leads to hospitalization and issues evolving around the fetus and its anger to the mother. Cuddy is the featured person in this episode, doing House's job for a time because her maternal instincts trump her medical judgment. House is a realist, knowing the score. All odds are against saving both the mother and the baby.

Chase and Cameron continue their dalliance. This is a bit tiring. Overall It was a weaker episode for me.

House is going to the Galapagos and still he has a connection to his team and to Cuddy, even though he totally disagrees with her.

This episode was much much better than the "one day one gloom" or some of the tritter episodes earlier. It was welcome change. Sure, it was no way flawless but definitely watchable and the conversation not irrelevant. Like other reviewers pointed out "that" moment with House was really touching. It is not going to change him or made him do anything different but it definitely made him "think" for a while even after that happened. Sure the writers thought to make Cuddy the Hero and House has gotten one wrong. But you cant really say it that way. House understood Cuddy and he backed off which is strange for a man who usually gets his way. Well, this episode belong to women. Cuddy is happy, Cameron fighting with her feelings and doesn't seem to realize one bit what Chase thinks of her. She says everything except that "one" thing looking at that photo. All in all no matter how debatable this episode was I still think it is worth a watch and I felt good. I love "House" TV series and this is one of the good episodes. All that starts well, ends well.