Abortion and Catholicism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the Catholic Church's view of abortion and the implication of this in the modern world. The paper presents the case of an ectopic pregnancy, which if left to continue, threatens the life of the mother. The paper discusses what actions Christian hospitals can take in such a case and the dilemmas that they face. The paper makes brief mention of when a fetus becomes en-souled.

From the Paper:

" With so many definitions regarding when life begins, the point of ensoulment during pregnancy becomes even more complicated and difficult to discern; Catholic hospitals have had to confront these moral dilemmas as they have begun to conflict with medical advancements. For example, the event of an ectopic pregnancy creates a moral question regarding whether the fetus, who cannot survive anywhere near the point of viability, should be aborted to protect the life of the mother. Ectopic pregnancies are most commonly caused when a fetus embeds in the Fallopian tube, an impossible location for a pregnancy to be carried anywhere near term. The most common treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is a drug-induced abortion with the drug methotrexate, a medically established procedure that terminates the pregnancy while preserving the life of the mother, which is almost always threatened by a tubal pregnancy (Hausknecht 1995). Although Catholic hospitals do not perform abortions, they commonly do administer methotrexate as a remedy for ectopic pregnancies."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brewer J.L., (1938) A human embryo in the bilaminar blastodisc stage (The Edwards-Jones-Brewer ovum) Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 496, Contributions to Embryology 27, 85-93.
• Hausknecht, Richard, "Methotrexate and Misoprostol to Terminate Early Pregnancy," The New England Journal of Medicine, 1995-AUG-31, Vol.333, No. 9
• Ponnuru, Ramesh "Do Blastocysts Go to Heaven?" National Review, July 11, 2001
• Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995.
• Stasek, Rosemary "A Brief History of Abortion in the Catholic Church," Speech given at Palos Verdes/South Bay NOW, posted at California Catholics for Free Choice, http://www.stasek.com/ccffc/history.shtml

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