Nun excommunicated for allowing abortion to save the life of a mother

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

Surgery for ectopic pregnancy is done to save the life of the mother ONLY when done for Ruptured ectopic pregnancy. This is a huge distinction because patients with ectopic pregnancy frequently come in with complaints such as bleeding and abdominal pain prior to having life threatening complications from the ectopic pregnancy. Would you have to wait until you had a life threatening complication before the surgery is okay? When the ectopic is identified, surgery or methotrexate therapy is done immediately to terminate the pregnancy because the pregnancy is not viable and has a high likelihood of killing the mother if not addressed. This is actually the most common presentation of ectopic pregnancy, which is quite similar to the situation in the OP.

You're like... 12 steps past where my understanding of ectopic pregnancy ends But I found this Catholics United for the Faith

There is no treatment available that can guarantee the life of both. The Church has moral principles that can be applied in ruling out some options, but she has not officially instructed the faithful as to which treatments are morally licit and which are illicit. Most reputable moral theologians, as discussed below, accept full or partial salpingectomy (removal of the fallopian tube), as a morally acceptable medical intervention in the case of a tubal pregnancy.

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· In the case of extrauterine pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct abortion.[2]

· Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.[3]

This distinction is derived from a moral principle called “double effect.” When a choice will likely bring about both an intended desirable effect and also an unintended, undesirable effect, the principle of double effect can be applied to evaluate the morality of the choice. The chosen act is morally licit when (a) the action itself is good, (b) the intended effect is good, and (c) the unintended, evil effect is not greater in proportion to the good effect. For example, “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not” (Catechism, no. 2263, citing St. Thomas Aquinas).

You can read the whole thing for a full explanation. But in short:

The majority of Catholic moralists, while rejecting MTX or a salpingostomy, regard a salpingectomy as different in kind and thus licit according to the principle of double effect.