Posted on 12/21/2010 12:30:48 PM PST by marshmallow
PHOENIX -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix stripped a major hospital of its affiliation with the church Tuesday because of a surgery that ended a woman's pregnancy to save her life.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted called the 2009 procedure an abortion and said St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center - recognized internationally for its neurology and neurosurgery practices - violated ethical and religious directives of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld," Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. "The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph's medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed."
St. Joseph's does not receive direct funding from the church, but in addition to losing its Catholic endorsement, the 697-bed hospital will no longer be able to celebrate Mass and must remove the Blessed Sacrament from its chapel.
In a statement, St. Joseph's President Linda Hunt said the hospital will comply with Olmsted's decision, but she defended its actions.
"If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case," Hunt said. "Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save." ad_icon
The woman is in her 20s had a history of abnormally high blood pressure when she learned of her pregnancy. After she was admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms, doctors determined her risk of death was nearly 100 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Ariz. Hospital Loses Catholic Status After Abortion”
Fixed the title. Damn media.
The poor young lady still has a 100% probability of dying. Too bad the child did not have a chance at living.
Relativism is a poor trade off at best.
“Ariz. Hospital Loses Catholic Status After Prenatal Infanticide”
Fixed it better.
Good. (I was born in that hospital!)
What if nothing was done and she died anyway. You can’t keep an 11 week fetus alive outside the womb. They both will have died.
Ok.... How come we never see this?: “Senator/Representative ______________ Loses Catholic Status After Support for Abortion.”
"In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld," Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. "The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph's medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed."
They didn’t say what was needed to treat the disease which in the article said was high blood pressure. They didn’t say what caused it. The mother could have died before the treatment (whatever it was) took effect thereby killing both.
It can be understood by the actions of the church that they disagree.
Ok, granted. But again. If the treatment failed both mother and infant would have died. Was there a physician on the Catholic board that decided this?
Radical treatment for high blood pressure. God Bless the Bishop.
Since the hospital and the mother decinded no treatment was to be done, we will never know if treatment could have saved the lives of them both. Seems to me that at 11 weeks and the mother not being on deaths bed we will never know.
"An unborn child is not a disease. While medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother’s life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means," he added... "The direct killing of an unborn child is always immoral, no matter the circumstances, and it cannot be permitted in any institution that claims to be authentically Catholic," he concluded.
The determination to kill the child should have been the absolute last resort to save the mother if necessary and not a choice of convenience
Ok, well in this case I defer to the medical staff and not to the Church. It’s easy to pontificate about morality (armchair quarterbacking) when not actually in the situation. Were there priests or whoever that decided actually there to see what the situation was? Where were they? In some office someplace far removed from the scene? Did they have in front of them the diagnosis and prognosis data? Or did they just condemn the hospital out of hand?
Given the timing, I would think the Church looked at every angle before making this decision.
okay--people have a right to do this... and because the staff at this hospital did what they did, they can't use the "Catholic" label... that is what was taken away...
Were there priests or whoever that decided actually there to see what the situation was? Where were they?
that does not matter... as he said:
The end does not justify the means," he added... "The direct killing of an unborn child is always immoral, no matter the circumstances, and it cannot be permitted in any institution that claims to be authentically Catholic," he concluded.
the church is simply standing by its beliefs in this case...
Fair enough. But we also don’t know if they simply took the easy way out. The Chuch pulled affiliation, thats all. Catholics do not and cannot condone abortion. When the case legitimately comes about that only one can survive the mother then is then saved unless she chooses otherwise
I’m sure.
No bias at the Post, uh uh.
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