givinig morphium to relieve the dyspnea in a fetus of gestational age under 22 weeks

bs"d

Shalom Rav,

I would like to ask the following question. I work as a paediatrician in a neonatal ICU. Recently I was called by gynaecologists to a miscarriage 19 weeks of gestational age old, where no intensive care live saving measures were feasible or sensible. The fetus was still viable post partum, and lived for some 45 minutes more. Thereafter I had different occasions of the same sort, with a fetus being between 19 and 22 weeks of gestational age old. Now, according to a personal experiences of my senior colleagues, a fetus is sometimes gasping for breath, and that in order to relieve the dyspnea, low dosed morphium is sometimes given. Now, morphium has a known cardiodepressive and respiratory repressive component of action in a neonate.

My question is (in order to know, how to act in a similar situation with a fetus gasping for breath): is it allowed halachically to give a very small dose of morphium to relieve the dyspnea in a fetus of gestational age under 22 weeks, which is definitely about to die soon?

Thank you very much

kol tuv