if the life of a women is in danger,do catholics allow abortion then?

-- sdqa and PUNKER (greg_pisahov@hotmail.com), February 11, 2005

Answers

There are very few situations where the mother's life is genuinely in direct jeopardy from her pregnancy, AND the problem cannot be managed by bedrest and/or medication. There are two situations in particular where that may be true however.

The first is ectopic pregnancy, where the baby is developing in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus. In this case there is no moral consideration at all, because the baby has zero chance of surviving, with or without surgery, and the mother's life is in danger without the surgery. Therefore the ONLY morally acceptable course of action is to have the surgery and remove the tube, even though the still-living baby is killed in the process.

The other fairly common situation is uterine cancer diagnosed early in pregnancy. In this case a decision must be made by the mother and her doctor. If surgery is delayed there is an excellent chance that the baby will be born healthy, but there is an increased chance that the mother's cancer will spread, possibly resulting in the loss of her life. If surgery is done immediately, the baby's chance of survival becomes zero, and the mother's chance of cure is increased. Either choice is morally sound. A mother is never morally bound to place her own life in grave danger for the sake of her child, either born or preborn, though many mothers freely choose to do so.

Such cases however do not constitute abortion. Abortion is the direct and willful destruction of a human life. In the cases above, the death of the unborn child is an undesired and unavoidable effect of treatment essential to the life of the mother. It's an entirely different scenario morally.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 11, 2005.

even though the still-living baby is killed in the process.

It was 99% an excellent reply, but this sentence has a regrettable word ("killed"). Since that word bears the connotation of "direct, intentional homicide" (abortion), it would have been better to have said, even though the still-living baby dies in the process. The doctor does not "kill" the baby, but rather heals the mother.

-- Typist (asdf@jkl.com), February 11, 2005.

Perhaps "died" would have sounded less harsh; however "killed" simply means "caused the death of". It absolutely does not imply intent. If you accidentally hit someone with your car and they die as a result, you killed the person, even though you had no intention of doing so.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 11, 2005.