On St. Joseph’s Hospital
(Also posted in http://montroseblvd.wordpress.com)
Since Anne Rice’s big ‘goodbye Christianity’ spiel I’ve started following her fan page on facebook, and I must say she posts the good stuff. Now I must say, I’ve yet to meet a person of whom I agree with 100%. I’d like to think Jesus is that guy but the reality is, in my sinfulness I don’t agree with all of his methods but the thing about him is, he wins every single argument we have. That being said, here are somethings you need to know about my thinking before reading on: (1) I think death is an unfortunate thing and if God had his way, we’ll all live eternally. (2) I’d like to think that I believe more on the sovereignty of God than any reformed person I know. Such that, he does not need me, my argumentative prowess, and my systematic theology (or lack thereof) to prove his existence and/or explain his mind. I believe he’s a big boy and that he can handle those stuff better than I can. And (3) I think we should own up to our stupidity and stop pinning every single evil on God, if God was to completely eradicate evil, I would be the first one to be extinguished (and you should think the same about yourself). That being said, let’s talk abortion.
What All The Fuzz Is About
Anne Rice has been posting these past few days a thread of articles regarding the ‘excommunication’ of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix AZ. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Archdiocese of Phoenix revoked his consent of the of Hospital’s utilization of the ‘Catholic’ this past Tuesday (Dec. 21, 2010) stating,
“The reason for this decision is based upon the fact that, as Bishop of Phoenix, I cannot verify that this health organization will provide health care consistent with authentic Catholic moral teaching as interpreted by me in exercising my legitimate Episcopal authority to interpret the moral law.”
The Arizona Republic, a local newspaper reported, “The case involved a terminally ill woman suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Her condition was worsened by her pregnancy, to the point where her death was imminent.” The New York Times, furthermore reports, “In November 2009, a 27-year-old mother of four in her third month of pregnancy arrived at St. Joseph’s. She was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a serious complication that might well have killed her if she had continued the pregnancy.”
According to the Hospital’s official statement, this is how they responded to the case:
“Consistent with our values of dignity and justice, if we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a human 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.” Furthermore, “We continue to stand by the decision, which was made in collaboration with the patient, her family, her caregivers, and our Ethics Committee. Morally, ethically, and legally we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save.”
What A Pickle!
Yes its a pickle and what a sour pickle it is. On the one hand here we have a very ill 27-year old mother of four who is in the brink of loosing her child, on the other, here we have our solid belief system that says the fetus is a human being and his (or her) life is hanging on the next decision, and to make it interesting we have this principal of a priest that says, “hey, I say killing the baby is excommunication worthy.” Let’s say, you are the attending doctor, what would you do? Here are your options: (1) you could try to save the baby by performing an emergency C-section and loose the mother and also, probably the child because he is just 11 weeks old. If you do this you will find favor in the eyes of your local church for not performing an abortion but you’d probably live with the haunting truth that you have just killed the mother and and quite possibly, if not, killed the child as well. (2) You could just go ahead and kill the baby and save the mom without even stopping to contemplate about it. You can damn what the church says and just go ahead and save the mom. Or (3) you can go into that surgery room, sweat your brow off trying to save both mother and child and after all has been exhausted to save both, and having found no hope of saving both, just try and save one, whoever that is living the rest to God.
The Hospital chose the third option. Their stand on the nature of the fetus is clear in their statement, “if we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a human life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible we will always save the life we can save…” There is no question in this regard, the baby and the mother are both ‘patients’, they are both ‘lives’ – in fact, they are both lives that are worth saving.
What I Think About All This
Abortion being the termination of a pregnancy resulting in the death of an embryo or a fetus is always a tragic procedure. There is, however in my estimation a difference between an intentional willful abortion and an abortion that is an unwanted yet inevitable procedure to save a life. The mother in this scenario is not a knocked up teenage girl in search of quick relief from the consequences of pre-marital sex. She, on the contrary, is a mother of four. She is a woman who wants to be a mother. Her personal history is not disclosed but from the information about her children, it can be deduced that she is not one who is wanting an abortion. She was in the hospital to have a baby, she was not there to loose one. It just so happened that she has a life threatening disease, a sickness that threatens not just her own life but the life of her child.
It is an understatement to say that to be the attending physician of this case is difficult, but more so when the fear of God is added to the equation. There is only so much a human being can do to save a life. At the end of the day, this is not a matter of philosophical, ethical, and theological discussion, in that dark operation room, the goal is singular: to save a life.
People who call on the name of God should should be the first to recognize human depravity. Not in the sense of the salvific formula but in the in the most simplistic way: the truth that man is not God. It is God who gives life and it is him who takes it away, just like the old Christian mantra that says, “God is Sovereign.” We have the duty to preserve the sanctity of life because we are made in God’s image. Abortion should never be an option but there is only so much a God-fearing doctor can do. They tried to save both but ended up saving just the mother. We should thank them for trying and leave the unborn child in the loving arms of the God who said, “let the little children come to me for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
I am not a Roman Catholic so I will hold my sentiments regarding the Bishop’s decision to excommunicate St. Joseph’s Hospital to myself. But I will say this to my Protestant Brethren, it is in times like this that we are needed by people the most. When there is a loss, when there is grief, when there is sorrow and death, people need the love of God the most. We Christians represent this love. In times like this let us be with people, let us save the philosophical conversation for another day. Let us be ready to be vessels of joy, the one the Church Fathers once called “Eucharist.” May we not abandon those people Jesus gave his life for so that they may have life. Come to think about it, if God the Father was like us and thought that Christ’s death was an abortion he would excommunicate all of us for reaping the benefits of his Son’s death.
Here are my two cents, do with it as you may. Just saying…
Instead of me linking every quote to the original source, I’m listing all the sources I used here:
The Arizona Republic – PDF versions of official statements are available on this link.
