There are fears for the health of a heavily pregnant Kurdish asylum seeker on Nauru who has diabetes.
Australian Medical Association President Brian Owler is demanding Immigration Minister Peter Dutton fly the woman, who is 40 weeks pregnant, to Australia for specialised medical care.
"The minister must stop playing with people's lives by being inflexible with the government's hard-line stance on asylum seekers," he said in a statement.
"Show some humanity and compassion."
A spokeswoman for the immigration department hit back saying there was a group of asylum seeker and refugee women on Nauru who were refusing appropriate medical assistance with their pregnancies.
"However most are now engaging with health service providers," the spokeswoman said.
She said the woman was now fully engaged with primary and specialist health care practitioners.
Refugee advocates have accused the department of overriding medical advice to bring the women to Australia for medical treatment.
"The risks in a diabetic pregnancy are well established, to delay proper treatment to the point where lives are at risk is medical negligence of the worst kind," Refugee Action Coalition Ian Rintoul said in a statement.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told reporters in Melbourne Labor would follow medical advice.
"If the doctors say it's safe to be in one place, or it's better to be in another place, we will back ... the advice of the doctors," he said.
