Woman 'denied a termination' dies in hospital

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I thought the septicemia was what was causing her to miscarry?

Jim
No, she was fully healthy, according to her husband, until after she had the operation. If she had presented with septicemia, she would have been induced at once - as ethically, she could die and hence so would the baby (say if it had been a longer term foetus).
 
Not really. In the case I pointed out above. If I give a dying person pain medication to alleviate their suffering, knowing full well the medicine will likely kill them, am I to withhold the medication?
This baby was dying within it’s mother’s womb, to remove it, and try to preserve his/her life would have been a good alternative. Even if the attempt was futile, it would be just as futile to leave him/her in the womb where death was already occurring.
follow my exchange with thewanderer and you will understand what i’m driving at.

that notion of preserving is nice. unfortunately the doctors in this case didnt see it that way.
 
The problem here is that the author is saying that the doctors could’ve induced labor, which would thereby kill the fetus, and this would be acceptable according to Church teaching.

It is not, according to the Priest for Life. You can not cause the death of the fetus, by inducing labor or a C-Section when you know it will kill the fetus. To say that this would be licit, is a tap dance around the illicit direct killing of the fetus through a D&C.

But, we’re back to an unknown. The mother’s condition may not have allowed for induced labor. If she had a ruptured intestine, certainly having her push the fetus out, would not be possible.

So, should the Doctors have been allowed to perform the D&C, early on which would have saved her life?

That’s the debatable question here, not whether inducing labor or performing a C-Section should’ve been performed and it’s licit according to the Church.

Jim
I honestly think that either the Priests for Life stance is being misunderstood, or they are simply wrong on this matter.

We know that ectopic pregnancies can be morally treated by removing the tube and child, which will certainly kill the child more surely than pre-term labor ever could.

Do we have any links to the stance of Priests for Life?

Peace and God bless!
 
Not dead, damaged. They are very much alive.
oh i agree. brain damaged people are still alive both physically and mentally.

but thats got nothing to do with the point.
i am talking about the absence of the persona. like in 17 week old fetuses. or in totallly brain dead subjects.
 
i’ve had this kind of debate before. and in each one the catholic argument for ‘person’ boils down to ‘potential’. In this case however THERE WAS NO POTENTIAL. the doctors knew the fetus was lost, and it did happen that way. the fetus never became a person.
no it really doesn’t, but like I said, I’m not getting into that discussion with you right now. Trust me, I have done enough studying to know the difference between potentiality and actuality.
i see. so you do hold on to the opinion that religion should mix with politics (and in effect restrict doctors).
I have said nothing either way with respect to this. My opinion is that doctor’s actions ought to be restricted by morality, problem is, people disagree about morality, and it is not just because of religion, I would hold the same system of morality whether or not I was Catholic. There are just certain actions which are never in themselves permissable. This does not come from religion so much as reason, sometimes people accept this because of religion, sometimes because of reason, and sometimes people reject it. But do you really think that doctors should not be bound by ethics and morality(for now ignoring what system of morality we are refering to)? That seems like an extreme and unreasonable position.
women are going to london to kill the fetus. isnt that sufficient reason enough? so why wont the good catholic just ‘move’ the fetus? i think you know the answer. because moving it would kill it. the distinction between direct and indirect becomes blurred. 😛
Umm, no, thats really not. You again are showing that you really have no understanding about how this principle works. You have to look at the action of removing the child from the mother. This particular action will have multiple effects, it is only permissable to take this action so long as the good effects from this action are equal to or greater than the bad effects. Bad effect, loss of the life of the child. I’m sorry but the only thing that can be proportionate to that is in saving someone’s life. The fact that someone would otherwise have an abortion of the same child makes no difference, the death of the child must be an unintended and unwanted secondary effect which must be balanced out by a proportionate good effect. In your scenario, not only is there not a proprtionate good effect resulting from this, but the death of the child would clearly be the intended and desired end, making tha action immoral.
 
I honestly think that either the Priests for Life stance is being misunderstood, or they are simply wrong on this matter.

We know that ectopic pregnancies can be morally treated by removing the tube and child, which will certainly kill the child more surely than pre-term labor ever could.

Do we have any links to the stance of Priests for Life?

Peace and God bless!
The point of the ectopic preg issue is that removal of part, or all of, the tube is done to treat pathology. It is not done to kill the baby. The diseased tube is the object of treatment.

What is the object of delivering a baby knowing that it cannot survive? What pathology is treated?
 
oh i agree. brain damaged people are still alive both physically and mentally.

but thats got nothing to do with the point.
i am talking about the absence of the persona. like in 17 week old fetuses. or in totallly brain dead subjects.
How much must be absent before you take away some person’s humanity? There are brain damaged people who cannot speak or much else.
 
The point of the ectopic preg issue is that removal of part, or all of, the tube is done to treat pathology. It is not done to kiill the baby. The diseased tube is the object of treatment.

What is the object of delivering a baby knowing that it cannot survive? What pathology is treated?
Well, when the danger to the mother’s life is caused by the child’s presence in her womb, then removing the threat to her life involves removing the child from her womb. The action of removing a child from a woman’s body is not intrinsically evil, in fact, it is often very clearly the right thing to do. So all that is left is ensuring that the death of the child is not intended and ensuring there is a proportionate reason (threat to mothers life)
 
What units are you using to measure a persona? What if we measure only a fraction of a persona? Is a fetus that only has 0.00101 units of a standardized persona a person? I want to know exactly how scientists p(name removed by moderator)oint the exact moment a clump of tissue becomes a person with rights.

Otherwise we have to conclude it is a person from conception because to kill a person out of uncertainty is criminal neglect.
 
How much must be absent before you take away some person’s humanity? There are brain damaged people who cannot speak or much else.
there are medical tests for that.

you must realize that though brain death is a form of brain damage, not all brain damage results in brain death. so please dont confuse between the two 🙂
 
Well, when the danger to the mother’s life is caused by the child’s presence in her womb, then removing the threat to her life involves removing the child from her womb. The action of removing a child from a woman’s body is not intrinsically evil, in fact, it is often very clearly the right thing to do. So all that is left is ensuring that the death of the child is not intended and ensuring there is a proportionate reason (threat to mothers life)
wow isnt it a wonder that all those medical staff in Galway hospital didnt think of that? 😃
what with her screaming in agony for 3 days. :rolleyes:
 
The point of the ectopic preg issue is that removal of part, or all of, the tube is done to treat pathology. It is not done to kill the baby. The diseased tube is the object of treatment.

What is the object of delivering a baby knowing that it cannot survive? What pathology is treated?
My mother died at a young age from a very rare cancer. When she was diagnosed, they had a new treatment option that was very risky. They presented her with 2 options; take the treatment and she could die the first time it was administered, but then again, it could extend her life. Or, refuse it, in which case she was given about a year to live.
My mom chose the year they felt she was almost certain to survive. It was weighing risks and benefits.
 
From your second link:

Dr. Jen Gutner asks in her post whether Catholic law or malpractice killed Savita Halappanavar. She concludes that “the fact that a termination was delayed for any reason is malpractice.” and goes on to say that “There is no medically defensible position for not doing anything other than optimal pain control and hastening delivery by the safest means possible.” When asked to clarify if such treatment constituted abortion or delivery, she stated: “Delivery = empty the uterus either induction of labour of D&E”.

Do miscarriages sometimes subside/stop and if a women is given bed rest could she go on to a full term pregnancy, or at least until the fetus is developed enough to be delivered? I, personally do not know. Also I find her statement defamatory, to categorically say it was malpractice, as Savita was fully healthy and the staff may have decided that a natural miscarriage carried less risk than anaesthesia and an operation.
 
Well, when the danger to the mother’s life is caused by the child’s presence in her womb, then removing the threat to her life involves removing the child from her womb. The action of removing a child from a woman’s body is not intrinsically evil, in fact, it is often very clearly the right thing to do. So all that is left is ensuring that the death of the child is not intended and ensuring there is a proportionate reason (threat to mothers life)
I think when talking about these complex issues we have to be careful to define our terms well. A child is never pathology. Treating pathology is fine, but the presence of the child is not pathology. Some other process involved is patholgical, not the baby growing in the womb.

Just like the presence of the child in the tube is not pathology. It is the deterioration of the tube that is pathologic and that is what requires treatment.

Direct abortion is never medical treatment.
 
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