The Church and ectopic pregnancy for health care workers

[laszlo]

momor;6547255:

Take two similar but fundamentally different cases: Case 1: A fireman runs into a burning building and finds two injured people. He carries one out leaving the other to fend for himself but that one eventually dies. He saved the one person but could not save the other.
Case 2: A fireman runs into a building and finds two injured people. He shoots one and carries the other to safety. One person lives and one dies. Same result as case 1 but very different.

Intent is very important. It is never permissible to intentially kill an innocent child in the womb, but if a fetus dies while saving a mothers life and there was no other way to save both, then you have made the best of a bad situation.

The analogy should be the war. Are we allowed to kill innocent people to defend out or our friends interest?

We must apply to this question the same principle as for the fetuses.

 

[laszlo]

Here is a sample similar to the ectopic pregnancy, an may ne analyzable without emotions:

An old man and his son who has family, hang on a rope. The son is closer to the rescue than the old man. Someone is pulling the rope up, but is is certain that under the weight of both the rope will be broken and both die, Question:

• can the old man cut the rope, so he is rescued, but his son will be saved?
• can a third party cut the rope with the same intention (old man dies, son is rescued)?

 

[JReducation]

Tansferring the baby from the tube to the uterus is an area of surgery that I am unfamiliar with. Therefore I cannot speak to it specifically. I can say that the moral rule is that any direct and intended attempt to terminate the life of the baby in order to save the life of the mother is immoral.

If this process exists and it works, I don’t see how it is an attempt to terminate the baby’s life. It would seem to my medical layman’s mind to be an attempt to save the baby. The baby may die in the attempt, but he does not die because someone deliberately tried to kill him. That’s the difference between this procedure and the usual procedure is that in the usual procedure the idea is to take the baby out of the tube and cast her aside in order to save mother and tube. In effect, mother and doctor agree that the mother’s life warrants the deliberate termination of the child’s life. You can never take an innocent life to save a life. The rule is that you must do whatever is in your power to save both lives. If there is such a procedure, such as moving the infant from the tube to the uterus, it sounds like it’s an attempt to save both lives.

Again, I’m not surgeon or a medical ethicist. I can only apply the rule as it is written in moral theology. You may never attempt to directly and knowingly kill an unborn child. Such an act is the gravest form of child abuse, because it is the murder of a helpless child.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

As I said above, I’m not an expert in this area of OB/GYN and surgery nor am I an expert Medical Ethicist. I did have the chance to ask the question of two people. One is a theologian whose STD is in moral theology and PhD in Medical Ethics and the other is an OB/GYN nurse with a PhD in nursing, with a specialization in this area.

Here is the answer to the question regarding the attempt to transplant the baby from the tube to the uterus. Such an attempt is morally unacceptable, because it DIRECTLY places the infant at risk. You cannot place the uborn child at risk anymore than you can any other patient. In other words, any intervention that increases the risk to human life is morally unjustifiable.

The difference between this and extracting the diseased tube with the child in the tube is that the latter procedure allows the child to die naturally. The intent is not to interfere with the child’s development nor is it an unjustifiable medical procedure.

As I’m understanding the response by both experts, there is no other morally acceptable choice but to extract the diseased tube with the baby inside and allow natural death to occur.

There are several Catholic ethical associations that those with further questions can write to for information.

I wish that I could be more helpful

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[mybundlesofjoy]

Thank you for looking into that, it’s very much appreciated.