title: The fetus as a patient.
abstract: This article highlights the concept, history and development of fetal medicine. The first attempts of fetal medicine date from the stone age and have continued throughout the medieval and modern ages. Attempts to influence fetal health and pregnancy outcome at first were purely theoretical and passive, limited by ignorance, fear, and religion. With the development of the medical sciences, the role of the obstetrician became more active. Today, not only obstetricians, but many other experts in the field of antenatal care as well, deal with the great number of medical and technological advances. The limitations arising today are mainly ethical. The main question that still has not been answered is to what extent the physician is allowed to interfere with the process of fetal development and pathology, based upon real fetal and maternal benefit. In order to answer this question and to coordinate many activities by different experts in this field, an international society antitled The Fetus as a Patient was formed in 1985. Croatian experts have played a leading role in this concept.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Sveti Duh General Hospital and Medical School, University of Zagreb.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurjak
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kos
mesh_terms: D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans