Thursday, December 16, 2010

Arizona Catholic hospital defends abortion

December 16, 2010
CWNews.com

Despite the threat of the imminent revocation of its status as a Catholic institution, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix issued a brief statement on December 15 defending an abortion that took place there. The abortion took place in late 2009 after a hospital ethics committee deemed the killing of the unborn child necessary to save the life of the mother.

“We believe that all life is sacred,” the hospital said in its statement. “In this case we saved the only life we could save, which was the mother’s.”

In a November 22 letter, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix told the president of the hospital’s parent company, Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), that on December 17 he will declare that the hospital is no longer a Catholic institution unless CHW recognizes that the abortion violated the US bishops’ ethical directives and pledges it “will never occur again.”

“The bishop and his staff are working together with Catholic Healthcare West and St. Joseph’s Hospital to find the best way to provide authentic Catholic health care in accordance with the Church’s teaching,” Bishop Olmsted’s spokesman said in a December 15 statement.

Reacting to news of the bishop’s letter, the ACLU again urged the federal government to compel religious hospitals to provide “emergency abortions,” and Lisa Fullam, professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, urged the hospital to defy the bishop.

Read the statement from the Diocese of Phoenix here.

Read the statement from St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center here.

4 comments:

  1. This is an extremely complicated case. But with that said, the hospital is defended the abortion by arguing "that the case was more akin to removing a pregnant woman's cancerous uterus, which is permissible under church doctrine, than to a standard abortion."

    St. Joseph's hospital is trying to apply the principle of double effect to this case to justify the abortion when it does not apply. The doctrine of double effect does not allow you to intentionally kill another human being to save another life (except in the case of self-defense or serving in a war). This is murder. Yes, this is a very difficult situation but these are precisely the times that Jesus calls us to pray and have faith in him.

    http://tunecedemalissedcontraaudentiorito.blogspot.com/2010/12/bishop-olmsted-church-teaching-and.html

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  2. Many, many questions...

    *If this woman had a heart condition severe enough to make preganancy dangerous, why wasn't she celibate? (Related questions: was the heart condition revealed only recently? Is she even Catholic?)

    *If she weren't pregnant, and was showing the same symptoms, what would the treatment be? Was this same treatment already in progress, or did they jump to the assumption that an abortion was "necessary?"

    *Why wasn't the Bishop/Diocese called in on the making of the decision in the first place?

    In other words, I need a book-length document and maybe a medical dictionary. Here's hoping there's a long letter to the faithful at some point -- right now, I just don't have enough information about any of this. The only opinion I do have is that there needs to be MUCH clearer communication on exactly what's going on. Of course, it's going to be spum as Catholics-Hate-Women by many outlets regardless, but as a Catholic woman, I want to know the details so that I can help explain the situation to others.

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  3. Hypertension can be treated without abortion by Specialists. There is no excuse for MURDERING a baby.

    See the non-religious internet site of "ENDOWMENT for HUMAN DEVELOPMENT" to see unborn baby determine right hand dominance at 8 weeks.

    Humans do not know best; - God's Will, not our Will. 50 MILLION babies have been murdered in the USA since 1973 Roe v Wade. This is genocide.

    Catholic Healthcare West, in addition to performing abortions, also performs voluntary sterilzations, and contraceptive counselling with medications.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Begin to see the non-religious internet site associated with "ENDOWMENT for Human being DEVELOPMENT" to view developing fetus figure out right-hand importance at 60 days.
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    ReplyDelete