In the case of a ten year old becoming pregnant by rape, is it the fault of the Church if said rape victim dies trying to give birth?
I don’t see how it would be the Church’s fault. The Church doesn’t make the moral law (the pro-choice atheist types who say it does are begging the question); it simply teaches it to others.
Some people imagine God is a consequentialist because they don’t really believe in God; because they think earthly goods are the only ones. What can you say to such people?
I’m sorry, but this is where I draw the line. We are talking about a CHILD here. I can’t believe someone here said that “People die. When and by what means is less important.” This little girl was 10 years old. Sometimes I think people are so eager to jump on the bandwagon behind the pro-life cause that they forget to exercise compassion and humility towards those affected by the painful, physical reminder that a pregnancy resulting from rape will bring.
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Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t abortions allowed by the Church only if delivering the child to term will present a serious threat to the mother and/or baby’s health? Wouldn’t a 10 year-old rape victim fall under this category?
If my understanding of Catechism is correct, abortion is categorically off-the-table, even if the mother will die. I could be wrong on that though.
One should of course always be compassionate, especially to the dead. I don’t think there are words strong enough to express how unfortunate such a situation would be – much less how sick and fallen a world is that would produce one. But compassion for the unborn is important here, too, and no child deserves to be killed in its mother’s womb.
It’s good that no one died, but that is often not the case with children impregnated at a young age. We both agree that the rape and impregnation were obviously very traumatic experiences for anyone to experience, especially a very young child. What we don’t both agree on is whether or not it would be safe for a 10 year-old child to give birth, and whether an abortion or carrying the child to term and delivering would be more traumatic to her physical and mental well-being.
We Catholics aren’t exactly consequentialists. :-\ It is never right to do evil that good may result. And killing an unborn child is never anything but evil.
A major reason that I am vehemently opposed to the Church’s (apparent?) restrictions on abortion even in times of grave medical peril/rape is that it seems to disproportionately affect women as opposed to men. It’s WRONG to condemn a woman suffering medical complications from a pregnancy resulting from rape to her deathbed because “Thy will be done.” Unfortunately, some Fundamentalists would have abortion outlawed in all cases, including rape and medical danger, and ALL women, not just Christian women would have to either succumb to this fate or suffer a back-alley abortion.
With due respect, that is a really terrible reason to oppose the Church’s teaching on abortion. It doesn’t even make sense; the Church also teaches that men have a moral responsibility to care for their children and that the state should punish those that abrogate that duty.
Men and women are different creatures; they are called to different things in life. It’s by and large men that go out and die in on-the-job accidents or get killed in the line of duty, yet no one would imagine that men are being expected to shoulder an unfair burden. It’s simply a responsibility to which they’re called by virtue of the demands of their sex. Likewise with women; theirs is the joy – and the suffering – unique to motherhood.
I will admit that the moment of absolute personhood is a gray area for everyone, even for many Christians who in turn decide the safest route is to assume conception as that point.
But it’s not a gray area. “Personhood” here is irrelevant (and meaningless, anyway). Life is a *human *right – i.e., it is a right which accrues by virtue of one’s membership in the *human *race. To what race does the human fetus conceived by humans and nurtured in a human’s womb belong if not humanity?
You have to understand that since I rejected to Catholicism, that my only tools to navigate the world are reason and logic. That might sound scary to many posters here, but it has been very authentic and liberating to me.
I can tell you were not well catechized if you think the Church’s teachings are not based on reason. Are you familiar with Thomist natural law theory? Classical essentialism? Aristotelian teleology?
I would beg to differ. I attended Catholic school all my life - Pre-Kindergarten through my Senior year of college. I am well-versed in Catholic dogma. I would argue the Catholic Faith requires just that - a LOT of faith. Personally, I wish the Catholic Church would just defend the male priesthood, and other controversial practices as a matter of tradition and faith and leave it at that. The explanations for such things fell flat and ultimately ended up driving me away.
And what is faith except trust in what human reason has revealed to be true?
