S
SoCalRC
Guest
I would have to agree. From ETHICAL AND RELIGIOUS DIRECTIVES FOR CATHOLIC HEALTH CARE SERVICES:The justifications typically used in support of salpingectomy on the principle of double effect are very weak and it is quite difficult to differentiate between that and MTX treatment in ectopic pregnancy. In fact it can be said that salpingectomy is even worse because it is both a direct attack on the unborn and an attack on the mother’s fertility. It is a difficult argument to say that removal of the tube with the baby inside is not a direct attack.
- Abortion (that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability or the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted. Every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the termination of pregnancy before viability is an abortion, which, in its moral context, includes the interval between conception and implantation of the embryo. Catholic health care institutions are not to provide abortion services, even based upon the principle of material cooperation. In this context, Catholic health care institutions need to be concerned about the danger of scandal in any association with abortion providers.
- Catholic health care providers should be ready to offer compassionate physical, psychological, moral, and spiritual care to those persons who have suffered from the trauma of abortion.
- Operations, treatments, and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.
In light of #45 and #48, the seeming application of #47 seems particularly dubious for any form of preventive intervention. This also appears to be the case in Latin American countries where Catholicism is a stronger presence. In those cases, health care providers usually cannot intercede until an ectopic pregnancy results in an actual tubal rupture. Treatment of the internal bleeding is then deemed a more licit application of double effect (since the condition threatens the life of both patients).
- In case of extrauterine pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct abortion.
That said, I have tremendous compassion for the individuals involved, patients, families, doctors. If anything it should be a wakeup call for Catholics. We, ourselves, have a difficult time fully embracing our own, expansive “right to life” teachings, so perhaps we should be more patient with and less judgemental of secular society.