U
UbiCaritas
Guest
Once more, I am not advocating for the use of contraception in any case. I’m advocating for the use of a medical treatment which can have contraceptive side effects.
In the 5 C-sections scenario, contraception would be unacceptable. So would sterilization. If, however, mom did get pregnant and managed to carry to term, but started to hemorrhage uncontrollably at delivery, neither she nor her OB would be doing anything wrong if she needed a hysterectomy at that point. Her OB wouldn’t be performing the hysterectomy with the intention of sterilizing her; he would be performing the hysterectomy with the intention of removing an organ which is hemorrhaging blood and going to kill his patient if it’s not removed.
It’s all in the intent.
Similarly, a woman can have chemotherapy and radiation treatments even if they might render her sterile, not because the Church says “in that case, you can get sterilized,” but because the Church says, “In that case, you need to treat your cancer, and if you are sterilized as a result of the treatment, it’s a sad consequence, but an unintended one.”
Or, if you’d like, take another example. I see an 60ish-year-old woman grab her chest and keel over one day while I’m grocery shopping. I run to her side, and check for a pulse. Finding none, and realizing that she’s not breathing, I tell a store associate to call 911 immediately while I begin CPR. In the process of doing chest compressions, I break some of this poor woman’s ribs, as happens not infrequently in older patients.
If I walked up to her on the street and hit her in the chest with a baseball bat, I’d be guilty of assault both in the eyes of the law and in those of God. If I do so in the course of performing a life-saving action, neither the law nor God will consider me guilty of wrongdoing, even though her ribs being broken is an objectively bad thing. Similarly, if I were a medical professional, and I prescribed a contraceptive or abortifacient pill in order to prevent a woman from getting pregnant, even for a very good reason, I’d be wrong to do so. If I said “You have ovarian cancer and need radiation therapy/have stage IV endometriosis and need hormonal therapy/have brain tumors and need chemotherapy,” that woman might become sterile, temporarily or otherwise, as a result of the treatment, but neither I nor she would be guilty of wrongdoing because our intention was to treat the medical condition, and sterility was an unintended consequence. (Did you read my link to the principle of double effect?)
The pill has done great harm to our society, but it can also do some good. It itself is a tool, nothing more. A surgical vacuum can be used to tear an unborn child limb from limb, as can forceps. They can also be used to save a child’s life. The solution isn’t to ban people from using vacuums or forceps altogether, but to require people of good will to use them in a rightly-ordered manner. Ditto oral hormonal pills.
OP, if you would like me to back down on this thread, just say so either here or via PM and I will.
You know I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and the pain you’ve suffered. However–and I could be guessing incorrectly, and if so, my apologies!–I sense that it’s important to you to know that you are doing nothing wrong, and to hear so from a Catholic perspective, which is part of the reason I am posting so vehemently on this thread.
