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Roman Catholics Kick Out Hospital For Saving Mom's Life

Really?

PHOENIX (AP) — 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."

Full story.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix has undertaken an action in which they essentially argued the mother should die along with the baby to fulfill a misguided and ill-thought out belief in the sanctity of life. When both the mother and child die there is no life - and thus the diocese has committed an act of theological malpractice where the idea of the sanctity of life is put before the reality of the medical situation.  We should assume the diocese had good intentions but that Bishop Olmsted is ill-equipped to to deal with the complicated medical, ethical and theological issues involved in this case.  The bishop's action harm the Roman Catholic Church.  A young woman would have tragically died had the bishop's wishes been followed.  How does that advance the sanctity of life?   

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