Complicated abortion question.

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Hello all, I have a question on abortion that was brought up to me by my wife. I understand why abortion is wrong and so does she. She brought up a scenario where she said she doesn’t know if she couldn’t stick with the churches teachings. This was brought up because she knows someone this has happened to. This person she is very close to. Lets say you are many months pregnant, and the fluid that the baby lives in is ruptured. The doctor tells you that if you leave the baby in and carry it the rest of the way you will die 100%, yet the baby when born will only live an hour. The baby does not have lungs and they won’t be able to develop because of the lack of fluid. The person decides to induce Birth and the baby lives for less than an hour and passes away yet the mother gets to live. What is a catholic woman to do in that situation? She has 3 kids at home. Is she supposed to carry the baby and face sure death only to have the baby die shortly after birth? It would leave the 3 kids at home motherless. I think if any of us were in the baby’s position we would want our mother to live on if we were going to die anyway (if we could think on the level we are now at that stage in life.) I do not know how to answer my wife with an answer that would comfort her. My wife is pregnant right now and she asked me what I would want her to do if this happened to her. I do not know what to say. Any help, guidance and prayers would be welcome and appreciated
 
Hello all, I have a question on abortion that was brought up to me by my wife. I understand why abortion is wrong and so does she. She brought up a scenario where she said she doesn’t know if she couldn’t stick with the churches teachings. This was brought up because she knows someone this has happened to. This person she is very close to. Lets say you are many months pregnant, and the fluid that the baby lives in is ruptured. The doctor tells you that if you leave the baby in and carry it the rest of the way you will die 100%, yet the baby when born will only live an hour. The baby does not have lungs and they won’t be able to develop because of the lack of fluid. The person decides to induce Birth and the baby lives for less than an hour and passes away yet the mother gets to live. What is a catholic woman to do in that situation? She has 3 kids at home. Is she supposed to carry the baby and face sure death only to have the baby die shortly after birth? It would leave the 3 kids at home motherless. I think if any of us were in the baby’s position we would want our mother to live on if we were going to die anyway (if we could think on the level we are now at that stage in life.) I do not know how to answer my wife with an answer that would comfort her. My wife is pregnant right now and she asked me what I would want her to do if this happened to her. I do not know what to say. Any help, guidance and prayers would be welcome and appreciated
 
RedSoxFan45 said:
The baby does not have lungs and they won’t be able to develop because of the lack of fluid. The person decides to induce Birth and the baby lives for less than an hour and passes away yet the mother gets to live.
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The situation you describe is not an abortion.

What you describe would be truly tragic, but it is a tragic fact that sometimes babies die. There is a world of moral difference between a baby dying shortly after birth and having someone kill that same baby before he’s even born.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
RedSoxFan45 said:
Hello all, I have a question on abortion that was brought up to me by my wife. I understand why abortion is wrong and so does she. She brought up a scenario where she said she doesn’t know if she couldn’t stick with the churches teachings. This was brought up because she knows someone this has happened to. This person she is very close to. Lets say you are many months pregnant, and the fluid that the baby lives in is ruptured. The doctor tells you that if you leave the baby in and carry it the rest of the way you will die 100%, yet the baby when born will only live an hour. The baby does not have lungs and they won’t be able to develop because of the lack of fluid. The person decides to induce Birth and the baby lives for less than an hour and passes away yet the mother gets to live. What is a catholic woman to do in that situation? She has 3 kids at home. Is she supposed to carry the baby and face sure death only to have the baby die shortly after birth? It would leave the 3 kids at home motherless. I think if any of us were in the baby’s position we would want our mother to live on if we were going to die anyway (if we could think on the level we are now at that stage in life.) I do not know how to answer my wife with an answer that would comfort her. My wife is pregnant right now and she asked me what I would want her to do if this happened to her. I do not know what to say. Any help, guidance and prayers would be welcome and appreciated
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Inducing the baby is not killing it. If the baby survives in an incubator that is great but if the baby dies one cannot say that that is an abortion!! Surely not!🤷
 
I agree with the others. This is not direct abortion or abortion at all as is described in the OP’s scenario. As soon as the amniotic sac breaks the baby is now in crisis and dying. Inducing labor is the only option if there is truly no amniotic fluid retention. If someone is “many months” pregnant then the baby does have lungs. They may be immature but they do have them. There’s a number of other treatments that could be done also like giving the baby medicine to speed up the maturity of the lungs etc. Scenarios like this happen all the time. Also if the amniotic sac breaks most likely a natural abortion or miscarriage will occur. Sometimes there is a small rip in the amniotic sac that can heal on its own.In that case watching and appropriate treatment is done. If infection has already set in then then there is no waiting.

The church does allow for life saving measures depending upon the conditions. Be careful when trying to make assessments of anothers condition we rarely know all the details that might be involved in the decision.

Prayers for a healthy pregnancy and delivery. I remember worrying about some unlikely scenarios during my last pregnancy.
 
From the website: [Bhttp://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0898.asp**
  1. Medical necessity. What about the argument that the Church must make exceptions to its teaching when abortion is medically necessary for the mother’s health or a child’s disability?
First, while the Church opposes all direct abortions, it does not condemn procedures which result, indirectly, in the loss of the unborn child as a “secondary effect.” For example, if a mother is suffering an ectopic pregnancy (a baby is developing in her fallopian tube, not the womb), a doctor may remove the fallopian tube as therapeutic treatment to prevent the mother’s death. The infant will not survive long after this, but the intention of the procedure and its action is to preserve the mother’s life. It is not a direct abortion.

There also occur, very rarely, situations in which, in order to save the mother’s life, the child needs to be delivered early. But this can be done safely with a normal, induced delivery, or a caesarean section.

The argument for killing disabled unborn children is not a medical one either. There are no disabilities which require directly killing the child in order to save the mother. In fact, disabled children can usually be delivered with no more complications than a child without disabilities. The argument for abortion in these cases is ideological, a belief that it is better—for the child, the family and the whole society—for the child to die than to live with a disability.
 
This sort of thing actually happened to a friend of mine, and to the sister of a friend of mine, within days of each other. Each family handled it differently.

The sister of the friend’s family handled it by inducing the baby at 18 weeks. That is too young to be viable.

My friend is a strong Catholic and did their own research. What they were told was not that she would be able to carry to term and would surely die. She was never told that.

When the amniotic fluid ruptures with the baby within the womb, the baby most likely will not survive. There have been cases (miraculous) where the baby is able to grow and both are fine. This is rare.

What is more likely to happen is that the baby will die in utero due to lack of fluid. At that point you would induce labor to expel the stillborn child.

My friend’s family decided not to induce the baby before he died in utero a couple of weeks later at 17 weeks gestation. He died stillborn. My friend has since had another child.

This really sounds like a strawman question. There is no way that a doctor can say 100% of the time, something will happen. High likelihood, sure. But doctors aren’t God.

Despite the advances in prenatal diagnostics, prenatal testing is still not 100% accurate and there exists a risk of misdiagnosis that can and often does result in the loss of a less impaired or even healthy baby by early termination of pregnancy.

So doctors cannot induce a baby if there is no immediate risk to the mother. Even when induction is considered necessary in medically emergent situations, such as severe preeclampsia in the mother, every effort is made to give the baby as much time in the womb as possible to lessen the usual risks of prematurity.

More info: here and here.

If a family is ever in that sort of situation and aren’t sure what Catholic teaching is, I recommend contacting the National Catholic Bioethics Center. They offer emergency and time-sensitive consultations.
 
You have to trust in God and follow the Church’s teachings. That doctor could be wrong. There are a world of other options out there. You must follow the Church’s teachings and not be selfish. You can never justify an abortion, ever. You are saying that the doctor knows 100% that the mother will die. Get a second opinion. You say that the doctor knows 100% that the child will die, Get a second opinion.

This doctor is seems just want to tell you whatever you need to hear to kill a child. DO not trust him. Go to someone else. Get your priest and Bishop invloved. Follow the Church’s teachings and Trust in God.
 
RedSoxFan45 said:
Hello all, I have a question on abortion that was brought up to me by my wife. I understand why abortion is wrong and so does she. She brought up a scenario where she said she doesn’t know if she couldn’t stick with the churches teachings. This was brought up because she knows someone this has happened to. This person she is very close to. Lets say you are many months pregnant, and the fluid that the baby lives in is ruptured. The doctor tells you that if you leave the baby in and carry it the rest of the way you will die 100%, yet the baby when born will only live an hour. The baby does not have lungs and they won’t be able to develop because of the lack of fluid. The person decides to induce Birth and the baby lives for less than an hour and passes away yet the mother gets to live. What is a catholic woman to do in that situation? She has 3 kids at home. Is she supposed to carry the baby and face sure death only to have the baby die shortly after birth? It would leave the 3 kids at home motherless. I think if any of us were in the baby’s position we would want our mother to live on if we were going to die anyway (if we could think on the level we are now at that stage in life.) I do not know how to answer my wife with an answer that would comfort her. My wife is pregnant right now and she asked me what I would want her to do if this happened to her. I do not know what to say. Any help, guidance and prayers would be welcome and appreciated
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If you’re in a boat…

Uh-huh.
 
RedSoxFan45 said:
Hello all, I have a question on abortion that was brought up to me by my wife. I understand why abortion is wrong and so does she. She brought up a scenario where she said she doesn’t know if she couldn’t stick with the churches teachings. This was brought up because she knows someone this has happened to. This person she is very close to. Lets say you are many months pregnant, and the fluid that the baby lives in is ruptured. The doctor tells you that if you leave the baby in and carry it the rest of the way you will die 100%, yet the baby when born will only live an hour. The baby does not have lungs and they won’t be able to develop because of the lack of fluid. The person decides to induce Birth and the baby lives for less than an hour and passes away yet the mother gets to live. What is a catholic woman to do in that situation? She has 3 kids at home. Is she supposed to carry the baby and face sure death only to have the baby die shortly after birth? It would leave the 3 kids at home motherless. I think if any of us were in the baby’s position we would want our mother to live on if we were going to die anyway (if we could think on the level we are now at that stage in life.) I do not know how to answer my wife with an answer that would comfort her. My wife is pregnant right now and she asked me what I would want her to do if this happened to her. I do not know what to say. Any help, guidance and prayers would be welcome and appreciated
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I think your premise is false. I don’t believe losing your amniotic fluid mean the woman will die if she carries to term ore even if it will cause any physical problems. With a new child on the way I would think you both would be better off not worrying yourself with farfetched scenarios.
 
I am 100% pro life and anti-abortion and there is an adage in the legal profession that “hard cases make bad law”. Which means if you strain for a hypothetical of the unlikely and perhaps not even possible, then try to build a law on that case, you usually end up with a bad law.

As to this hypothetical (which is really what it is), I agree with the earlier respondant that its hard to imagine a case with these absolutes (the Baby will absolutely die or the wife will absolutely die). I think abortion is out of the question - but I don’t know the Church position on premature inducement to a cessarian, for example, if done when the Baby is at the stage where survival would be expected.

If really confonted with a situation where my wife would die and the Baby would not live in any event - I pray to the Lord I never personally have that choice - I’d like to think I would trust in God (but I know its easy to say that from the comfort of my chair when not agonizing over this as a real life test of faith.

Also - apologies that I don’t know the anwer to this - but for others, what is the Church position on tubal pregnancy (when an egg becomes fertilized in the fallopian tube so birth is not possible and failure to abort will result in serious injury or death to the mother?

Blessings,

Brian
 
I think you can induce delivery, even if the fetus is not yet viable. The intent isn’t to kill the baby, but to end the dangerous situation. There are some situations where to remain pregnant can kill you. As far as I know, you’re supposed to try and hold on as long as possible.

It’s not a far-fetched scenario, actually. This happens.
If the amniotic fluid ruptures, you can get an infection in your womb. If this happens early in the pregnancy, she can go on bed rest and try to ride it out until the baby is developed enough to make it. But, if she gets an infection, you may have to induce delivery to save the mother’s life.
 
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