Prenatal diagnosis is not permitted when undertaken with the intention of aborting an unborn child with a serious defect.
No matter what the defect. No matter how unable the parents are to deal with an infant born to suffer and then die. No matter how much futile suffering is in store for the infant.
Those evil bastards.
52. Catholic health institutions may not promote or condone contraceptive practices but should provide, for married couples and the medical staff who counsel them, instruction both about the Church’s teaching on responsible parenthood and in methods of natural family planning.
53. Direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution. Procedures that induce sterility are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology and a simpler treatment is not available.
Then get out of the field.
I’ll skip the rest for now, because it’s separate from the “when in doubt, refuse the woman treatment” issue.
This situation is an absolute nightmare. Because of the free exercise clause of the Constitution, the US government is very leery of messing with churches, even with churches that are simultaneously running a huge chunk of the health care sector and refusing to provide certain kinds of care on dogmatic authoritarian reactionary religious grounds that should have no place in a health care system. That means that the US government allows churches to run health care systems but refuses (or at least neglects) to monitor them properly.
Catholic bishops are in charge of a big fraction of the US health care system.
That needs to change.
Of course the US gov’t wont dare touch the churches. Especially with Obama in charge – can’t you just hear the shrieks of “persecution” from the likes of Bryan Fischer and Pat Robertson?
I know. This is what I’m saying. That’s why The People Must Rise Up.
“Prenatal diagnosis is not permitted when undertaken with the intention of aborting an unborn child with a serious defect.”
How does the diagnosis cause an unborn fetus to be aborted? How does one presuppose various possible actions which may or may not be taken pursuant to the findings of a diagnosis which has not yet taken place? Am I by happenstance dense or are the smoke and mirrors (likely intentionally) arranged to make me feel that way? RC dogma in this is dross.
@peterh arizona was trying to make that a law this year i think, that doctors cld lie re fetal health w impunity–it’s hard to keep all the Handmaids Tale laws straight recntly, but one of the states was, and i think Rick santorum has come out against prenatal testing for same reason…..if women know then they might have an abortion so better keep parents ignorant!!
it was Arizona AND kansas
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/14/the-legal-claims-of-wrongful-birth-vs-the-right-to-lie-over-abortion.html
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/03/06/senate-approves-bill-on-wrongful-births/
Exactly. QFT. Bingo.
So what was that about Death Panels again?
How does the diagnosis cause an unborn fetus to be aborted?
I believe that directive is meant to stop doctors from making diagnoses that might cause a patient to choose abortion as a medical option. In other words, if a woman has a medical condition that might require abortion, her doctor is simply not supposed to do anything that might lead (directly or indirectly) to his having to tell her that abortion might be a good idea. In short: don’t tell a woman anything that might lead her to make a decision contrary to Church doctrine.