The Deep Issue on Abortion

[Vigis]

Hey people I have just stumbled onto this question. No doubt to have an abortion because somebody does not want the child is murder and wrong. I know that the Catholic Church is very strong on this issue. Since I am going to join the Catholic Church in the next couple of years I am inclined to know everything about it. What is the Catholic Church’s position on abortion when it involves the issue of when a mother will die if she gives birth to the child? Does the Church hold that it is then okay to have an abortion in such circumstances? Please help me to understand this. If you need me to help clarify the question please then ask me. God speed.

 

[VociMike]

Hey people I have just stumbled onto this question. No doubt to have an abortion because somebody does not want the child is murder and wrong. I know that the Catholic Church is very strong on this issue. Since I am going to join the Catholic Church in the next couple of years I am inclined to know everything about it. What is the Catholic Church’s position on abortion when it involves the issue of when a mother will die if she gives birth to the child? Does the Church hold that it is then okay to have an abortion in such circumstances? Please help me to understand this. If you need me to help clarify the question please then ask me. God speed.

The way you ask the question it sounds as if you are asking about the case where the mother will surely die and the child will surely live. The problem is, nobody can ever say with certainty that the mother will die if she gives birth. So, do we kill the child to improve the mother’s chance of survival, or do we do the best we can (which is very good these days) to save both?

 

[NotWorthy]

I’d like Pro-Abortionist to give valid statistics on how often this is the case. I understand it is so small, that it shouldn’t even be considered, so we end up trading 3 million abortions a year for the one or two times in a year that the mother’s life is in true jeapordy.

 

[Syele]

I’m not catholic so I won’t comment on the church teaching, but think of this. IF the mother will surly die and the child will surely live, Wouldn’t it be better if two lives got to be lived (the mother up to now, the child a normal lifespan) then to allow the mother who is already an adult and got to do many things live a bit longer and kill the child?

 

[gardenswithkids]

What is the Catholic Church’s position on abortion when it involves the issue of when a mother will die if she gives birth to the child? Does the Church hold that it is then okay to have an abortion in such circumstances? Please help me to understand this.

If the death of the child results from indirect medical action to treat a desease, (such as the removal of a cancerous uterus or removal of a falopian tube that will otherwise burst due to an ectopic pregnancy) it’s sad, but such action is morally acceptable. The *direct *killing of the child inside the mother is never acceptable, (to my understanding.).

Now I want to address another point that many miss when they ask such questions. Abortions still require that the child somehow exit from the womb. The gruesome late term abortion procedures such as “partial birth abortion”, saline abortions and the needle injections into the heart, require the woman “give birth” to the dead child. If there is something life threatening about continuing the pregnancy, a woman can be closer monitored by her physician and if neccessary labor can be induced early to birth a live child–and the pregnancy is “terminated” with a live birth. Partial birth abortion–where they force open her cervix, reach into her womb, twist the baby into breach position, pull it part way out, and stab it while it’s still in the birth canal–that sounds far more tramatic to the woman (to say nothing of the child) than a live birth of a premature baby who might require neo-natal ICU care once outside the woman’s womb.

 

[hasikelee]

Hey people I have just stumbled onto this question. No doubt to have an abortion because somebody does not want the child is murder and wrong. I know that the Catholic Church is very strong on this issue. Since I am going to join the Catholic Church in the next couple of years I am inclined to know everything about it. What is the Catholic Church’s position on abortion when it involves the issue of when a mother will die if she gives birth to the child? Does the Church hold that it is then okay to have an abortion in such circumstances? Please help me to understand this. If you need me to help clarify the question please then ask me. God speed.

What condition will be healed or prevented entirely by opening the cervix and killing the baby, then scraping the uterus?

Abortion is harmful in and of itself. Performing an abortion on a woman who is already medically compromised is not wise, nor is there any good reason to do so. (Even according to Alan Guttmacher).

Official Church teaching is that a physician must do all that she or he can do to save both lives, BUT in the circumstance of using a medication or procedure that endangers one life yet saves another, it is not morally wrong to do so. Thus meaning if the mother has, say, cancer, the doctor can prescribe chemo therapy and if the pre-born baby dies due to this treatment there is no moral wrong as direct killing was not a reason for the treatment. This is known as the Double-Effect.

 

[Eileen_T]

Alan Guttmacher, who succeeded Margaret Sanger as head of Planned Parenthood, said in his book “*Abortion Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” The Case for Legalized Abortion Now *which was published in 1967:

“Today it is possible for almost any patient to be brought through pregnancy alive, unless she suffers from a fatal disease such as cancer or leukemia, and if so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less save the life”

The catholic Church recognises the principle of the “double effect” which means that any treatment administered to save a woman’s life, that also results in the death of a preborn child, is not a true abortion, since the primary purpose of the treatment was to save a life not take it. Even if the death of the baby is a foregone conclusion, such an action is not classifiable as an abortion.

The Principal of “Double Effect” applies only in the case of an actual and proximate threat to the life of the mother. It does not apply under the loose assertion that “all pregnancies threaten the life of the mother because pregnancy is more dangerous than abortion.”

Source: www.life.org.nz

I covered the Catholic position on abortion in some detail here:
life.org.nz/abortionreligiouskeyissuesromancatholicism.htm

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I’m not catholic so I won’t comment on the church teaching, but think of this. IF the mother will surly die and the child will surely live, Wouldn’t it be better if two lives got to be lived (the mother up to now, the child a normal lifespan) then to allow the mother who is already an adult and got to do many things live a bit longer and kill the child?

Actually that is one of the most Christian ways of looking at the tragic situation and many have taken this path.

It reminds me of a true story a few months ago where a 12 year old girl was in a car accident and she threw herself over her 2 year old brother so he wouldnt be crushed. Anyway because of this her brother was safe but she had to have her arm amputated. When asked in an tv interview about how she felt knowing she could have died she said that she already got the chance to live a good life and wanted her brother to have the same chance!

 

[dal11]

I argue this subject at work all the time. That abortion is o.k. if the mothers life is in danger argument. This is with (so called) pro life people too. I try to explain you really don’t believe there’s a child in the mothers womb if you say that. We have become numb to abortion it’s gone on for so long. They say yes we do think there’s a child in there. I say, o.k., you think the child in the womb is just like the child out of the womb. They say yes. I say , o.k. A mother walks into a bank with her 3 year old child. A bank robber comes in and robs the bank. The police and news crew surround the place. The bank robber gets really mean and walks up to the mother and says, I’m going to kill you or I’m going to kill your child, but one of you will die and one of you will live, you make the choice. He then kills one of them. The news crew comes in and says, didn’t you come in here with your child. And the mother says, yeah but I had to make a choice me or my child and I chose me. Now you tell me, the public would be in outrage. It would be all over the national new.MOTHER CHOOSES HER LIFE OVER HER CHILDS.

 

[VociMike]

I argue this subject at work all the time. That abortion is o.k. if the mothers life is in danger argument. This is with (so called) pro life people too. I try to explain you really don’t believe there’s a child in the mothers womb if you say that. We have become numb to abortion it’s gone on for so long.

Or, imagine a (non-pregnant) mother who had severe heart disease and had only hours to live, with no donor in site. Should her teenaged daughter be killed so the daughter’s heart could be transplanted into the mother?

 

[sara888]

**John 15:12-17: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

13Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14You are My friends if you do what I command you. **

AngelJan