Blue babies controversy in the 50's?

[Rosalinda]

‘Cardinal Ratzinger and the Church should butt out of medicine of which they know nothing about…’ Such was the statement made this morning during the coffee and donuts session after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. As calmly as a kindly as I could I asked the my fellow parishionner could he give an example as to when the Catholic Church formally condemned some medical practice on which it later changed its teaching? (Earlier in the conversation my point in defense of our new Pope was that his job is not to change doctrine but he claimed indeed the church had already changed doctrine.)
His example was the blue babies controversy in the 1950’s about which he had recently seen a movie, “God Created It”. Apparently a doctor was excommunicated by the church for performing corrective surgery on the heart of a blue baby in U.S and saving his life after he had been forbidden. Well, this was a new one for me. While I couldn’t speak to the particulars of the case I suggested the Church may have been applying the principle that extraordinary means to save a life if the attempt is futile, experimental and cause for unnecessary pain is not required. I asked how many babies died before this technique was perfected. He claimed it was never experimental surgery as numerous trials had been tested on animals. Supposedly, the first baby who received this surgical intervention made an instanteous, miraculous recovery. Now that is a leap in faith.
I suggested it would be more appropriate to talk about medical ethics issue of today but he was adamant this case proves the Church was mistaken back then so they have no authority today to speak. I told him I’d get back to him.
Has anybody seen this movie or remember this controversy about blues babies?

 

[renee1258]

Try to google the terms, I can only speculate on somethings. Do you research and you can report back to your friend. Considering how many Catholic hospitals there are, I can’t imagine how the Catholic Church should “butt out of medince.”

 

[legeorge]

What did this person consider as “medicine”? Abortion? Euthanasia? Stem cell research? The Church now has an incredible bioethics center. They are probably more informed about these issues than other people.

 

[Lisa_N]

Sounds like one of those urban myths to me. The surgery is really quite simple, closed heart, they put a dacron patch over the hole. Why would someone be excommunicated for doing surgery?

Lisa N

 

[Mom_of_one]

Lisa N:

Sounds like one of those urban myths to me. The surgery is really quite simple, closed heart, they put a dacron patch over the hole. Why would someone be excommunicated for doing surgery?

Lisa N

I think the surgery referred to was in the 50’s. Not so simple then.

 

[puzzleannie]

3 neighbor children had this surgery, early 50s, all 3 families Catholic, all 3 heartily supported by the Church, all Catholic, ladies Church circles helped out by cooking meals, babysitting older children. these children were identified as blue babies when they started school (all went to parochial school) since there were health issues that had to be monitored. Henry Ford hospital in Detroit was one that pioneered this surgery, so perhaps that is why this was visible. Never heard anything about the Church condemning it. Demand proof from your source before you engage in fruitless debate.

 

[Lisa_N]

3 neighbor children had this surgery, early 50s, all 3 families Catholic, all 3 heartily supported by the Church, all Catholic, ladies Church circles helped out by cooking meals, babysitting older children. these children were identified as blue babies when they started school (all went to parochial school) since there were health issues that had to be monitored. Henry Ford hospital in Detroit was one that pioneered this surgery, so perhaps that is why this was visible. Never heard anything about the Church condemning it. Demand proof from your source before you engage in fruitless debate.

My great uncle was a blue baby and was much coddled and fussed over during his 90+ lifespan. He never had the surgery (born in the early 20th century). I agree, never heard anything about excommunicating someone doing surgery.

Lisa N

 

[CCF_Jeff]

It seems to me that the burden of proof is squarely on anyone stating that the Catholic Church has reversed its doctrine. Saying he saw a movie about it once doesn’t really cut it, however. He should be able to cite links to whatever Magisterial document prohibited such procedures.

Who knows, maybe some Catholic doctor or hospital thought it would be against Catholic doctrine to operate on a “blue baby”, though it sounds highly suspect to me. But even if that were the case it is not even close to “proving” that “the Church” had any such doctrine.

I would require documentation from authoritative sources, cush as Catechisms. or papal documents, such as papal bulls, encyclicals etc. Even documents from Vatican dicasteries etc. would be reasonable.

I would recommend challenging him to back up his as yet completely undocumented allegations. The burden to do so is obviously on the one throwing out such allegations. You could even give him a little help in finding whatever proof he needs.

He could do a google search of the Vatican Website.

Alternatively, he could browse through the Vatican archives of the encyclicals, apostolic letters, exhortations, constitutions, homilies etc. of our last ten Popes (Pope Leo XIII to Benedict XVI) here: www.vatican.va/holy_father/

EWTN has a nice search engine and a ton of Vatican documents here: www.ewtn.com/vlibrary/search.asp

He could also try Papal Encyclicals Online

The 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia is online here:
www.newadvent.org/cathen/

and the newer version is available at most public libraries.

A lot of the historical Catechisms are online:

St. Cyril’s Catechetical Lectures

The Great Catechism a summary St. Gregory of Nyssa. New Advent

The Great Catechism St. Gregory of Nyssa. Presupposes familiarity with classical philosophy. Moore-Wilson translation

A Catechisme Laurence Vaux, B.D., the first Reformation era Catholic Catechism in English. published in 1567 (1583 edition)

The Douay Catechism of 1649 by Henry Tuberville, D.D.

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine - More popularly known as the Penny Catechism

Basic Catholic Catechism by William G. Most

The Baltimore Catechism Read it online or download it Catholic Information Center (CIC)
The Baltimore Catechism James Akin

The Catechism of Trent aka The Roman Catechism, or the Catechism of Pius V

The Catechism of St. Pius X

My Catholic Faith A Manual Of Religion by the Most Reverend Louis Laravoire Morrow, S.T.D., BISHOP OF KRISHNAGAR

Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997 edition):

Vatican online edition

St. Charles Borromeo (with enhanced search feature)

Remember your challenge to him was:

I asked the my fellow parishionner could he give an example as to when the Catholic Church* formally condemned* some medical practice on which it later changed its teaching?

His recollections after seeing some movie doesn’t really suffice, in my opinion. I would ask him to back his allegations up. If it really was ever a Catholic teaching there would obviously be some sort of paper trail, and it should be relatively easy to find in the copious public record.

 

[Rosalinda]

The correct timeframe of the blue babies was not in the 1950’s but more like a decade earlier as the first successful surgery performed on a cyanotic baby was at Hopkins, Nov.29, 1944 by Drs. Blalock and Toussig on Eileen Saxon. While she survived the first operation she went blue a few months later and a second surgery was attempted but she died shortly before her 3rd. birthday. While the operation proved the technique to redirect bloodflow to the heart could work it seems fair to say it was experimental because they were dealing with conditions such as underdeveloped short arteries that they had not forseen. It was only later that the surgical technician, Vivien Thomas, would design instruments necessary for such young children. From the death of Eileen they learned children over 3yrs. of age would be more successful candidates for this surgery.
In 1945 the results of the first three surgeries on blue babies were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the impact was immediate worldwide.
As for the Catholic Church prohibiting this surgical development no one who was living at this time seems to recalls this controversy. If it caused such brouhaha and the surgeon was excommunicated surely that would have been a story of international interest.

 

[Ham1]

I saw the movie. It was an HBO produced movie. It had no characters from the Church or really any religious content at all. The movie focused on Vivien Thomas and racism within the medical community. It was a very good film, but I’m not sure what your friend is talking about.