Catholic priests: SHUT UP!


The Irish Catholic bishops have issued a statement on medical care given to Savita Halappanavar

Wait. What the fuck does anyone care what a mob of ignorant assholes say about reasonable, ethical medical care? I can’t even imagine the degree of arrogance involved for these self-righteous, unqualified old men to be so seriously offering advice on life-or-death issues of obstetrics and gynecology — to be piously asserting their importance even now in the aftermath of a death that would have been avoidable if Catholic doctrine had not meddled.

I can give advice, too. Catholic priests, sit down and shut the fuck up. Learn some humility for once in your privileged, pompous, puffed-up lives. This is the part where you should wake up and realize you are not qualified to run hospitals.

Instead, listen to the doctors. Like Jen Gunter, who finds the bishops’ advice to be inconsistent, incoherent, and confusing. That they even felt that their recommendations would be helpful or needed is damning.

All that their statement tells me is that they haven’t learned a single goddamned thing. They still think they’re qualified to interfere in medical decisions.

Comments

  1. says

    Actually they aren’t qualified to intervene in any decisions or give advice of any kind, to anybody. The only qualification to be a Catholic priest is to believe, or pretend to believe, in a load of nonsense.

    Btw I’m still holding out for the tardigrade . . .

  2. Beatrice says

    Wait. What the fuck does anyone care what a mob of ignorant assholes say about reasonable, ethical medical care?

    Well, I think they should have made a statement since they are largely to blame for what happened.
    I think the statement should have been:

    “We are very sorry for the pain we have caused. We will never again try to influence secular laws, directly or indirectly. Also, we are hateful ignorant douchebags.”

    Regarding the statement they have made: *spits*
    Yeah, better shut the fuck up than that.

  3. says

    Hey, you don’t get to be humanity’s bully for two millennia without a mindset that your opinions on subjects you have no business opining on are still of the utmost importance.

    Ignorant arrogance is a requirement of theocratic tyranny, and no-one has done it as well or as long as the Catholic Church.

  4. bobo says

    Hey, I thought that the church didnt have any assocation with this, like at all. According to ‘nolajim’ and others…

  5. dianne says

    FSM. They’re not very smart, are they? The statements about biology are…wrong. Just wrong.

  6. dianne says

    It’s times like this that I wish there were an afterlife. So that when these men die God could tell them exactly what they’ve done and make sure that they understood it. If they really understood and felt the implications of what they did, hell would be redundant. No person who has the slightest empathy could help but feel unending remorse.

  7. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Don’t even have to read it to know it is complete and utter idiocy. Take dogma, throw in bad biology from years ago, and out comes something that should go directly to the sanitary sewer if it isn’t so toxic as to kill the bacteria there.

  8. iknklast says

    Don’t even read the comments under the articles. There are a couple of Catholic apologists that seem unable to see the way this works, and are themselves offering “expert” medical advice about how the woman couldn’t have been saved, anyway.

  9. dianne says

    Take dogma, throw in bad biology from years ago, and out comes something that should go directly to the sanitary sewer if it isn’t so toxic as to kill the bacteria there.

    Hey, this could be useful: A new treatment for VRE and other resistant microbes! Nothing could become resistant to the toxic sludge churned out by these guys (and I use the gendered term purposely here.)

  10. Tony ∞2012 recipient of the coronal mass erection∞ says

    Not enough catholic apologists in the comments. There is a pro life MD though. Gah. How can you be in the medical profession and value a fetus as much as a full human being with the rights of a person?

  11. bradleybetts says

    So I read their big list o’ apologetics, and after a long list of platitudes about how the Catholic church has “never stated that the life of an unborn baby is worth more than the mother” and how they have equal worth due to their “common humanity”, they slot in this gem: “Whereas abortion is the direct and intentional destruction of an unborn baby and is gravely immoral in all circumstances, this is different from medical treatments which do not directly and intentionally seek to end the life of the unborn baby.”.

    … but a medical treatment intending to end the life of the (unviable and soon-to-die) baby was exactly what she needed to live! “In all circumstances”. Including when it saves the mother’s life. So basically what they’re saying si “The doctors followed our teachings to the letter, but don’t blame us! Look, we feel sorry for her!”. How blinkered and self-righteous are these out of touch twats?!

    People, do not read the statement. You will be shaking with anger by the end of it.

  12. mythbri says

    @iknklast #10

    “She couldn’t have been saved anyway”? Well, that makes it all okay that they forced her to die in agony over the course of several days.

    @dianne #11

    When I used to believe, I believed that Hell was being left alone with your regrets for all eternity.

    Seems appropriate.

  13. dianne says

    @mythbri: Seems more logical to me than the bit about fire. That’s just something that someone is doing to you. Regret is something you did to yourself. And, worse, others.

    @inklast: She could absolutely have been saved. If an appropriate procedure had been performed as soon as it was clear that she was not going into labor on her own and she’d been given up front antibiotics, she would have walked out of the hospital a day or two later. Totally routine. I’ve seen similar cases where the woman in question survived and had a healthy baby a few years later. This is a 100% preventable death.

  14. bradleybetts says

    @mythbri and dianne

    Read Inklast’s comment again. Inklast is saying the catholic apologetics in the comments were saying she could not be saved, not that it is Inklast’s opinion that she couldn’t.

  15. dianne says

    @16: I understood that. I was just agreeing emphatically that the catholic apologists were full of it. Sorry that I didn’t make that clear!

  16. PatrickG says

    The comments on the link echo a common theme I’ve seen reported: Savita died because she had a severe infection unrelated to her miscarraige. One person claims pre-existing e coli. Probably not news to people here, but I’ve been swamped lately and it was startling to me. :/

    All current indications are that she died of a massive infection, though the details may change as investigations continue.

    However, from what I have read, it seems that a serious infection, namely e-coli, was the main source of the problem.

    Naturally, there are people expressing incredulity and attempting to educate over there (dilated cervix for 48 hours, hello?), but the “ethicists” weighing in seem to be accepting this as established fact. Furthermore, MDR e coli seems to be the new Twinkie.

    It appears to me that the problem was an unforeseen ESBL infection rather than an issue of obstetric mishandling.

    On a somewhat random note, the Sun has broken links for any number of Savita-related articles. They still feature the stories, but … they’re just not there, including one that headlines “No record of abortion request on Savita file”. I was unable to replicate this problem with any link that came up from a search for “football”.

  17. Forelle says

    [I’ve left a comment at Dr. Gunter’s with my first paragraph, more or less.]

    In the aftermath of Dr. Halappanavar’s death, I noticed that many Irish “pro-lifers” tried to establish a distinction between “abortion” and “medical termination.” We’d find it laughable, were the circumstances less tragic. The pretense was transparent: yes to “medical terminations” where married, honest women are at “legitimate” risk, but beware of those sluts who want to open the door to, God forbid, “abortions.” These people sounded so earnest and gullible that it was tempting to feel some pity.

    I’m not surprised that Dr. Gunter professes to be somewhat bewildered by the terminology, though her analysis is excellent. But the bishops are talking to their base, who understand the code very well. When they say that “abortion . . . is gravely immoral in all circumstances,” they’re referring to what sluts do. This sort of hypocrisy, in which some Catholics swim so well, is what leads certain people to maintain, when things get rough, that the only moral abortion is their abortion, excuse me, termination.

    Of course, when you turn the light onto such terminology, it looks utterly ridiculous. The problem here seems to be that these Irish bishops think they’re talking down just to their flock. Even though I agree that they should generally just shut up, now that they’ve spoken I’d like to see their absurdities analyzed and roundly condemned.

  18. dianne says

    The comments on the link echo a common theme I’ve seen reported: Savita died because she had a severe infection unrelated to her miscarriage.

    This is how Ireland keeps it maternal mortality low despite the extreme incompetence of its doctors: Deaths of women due to complications of mismanaged pregnancies are declared to be due to something unrelated to the pregnancy and therefore not a part of the “maternal mortality” statistics. I’d love to see someone do an honest appraisal of all deaths in women who are pregnant or have been pregnant within the last year, but I fear that getting access to the data would be next to impossible.

    BTW, they’ve got a tiny part of a point in that if, for some reason, the abortion really couldn’t be performed at the first possible moment, the actions of the doctors would still be pretty questionable. They should have started antibiotics earlier, should have moved her to the ICU far earlier, in short, should have taken the whole thing more seriously.

  19. says

    Advances in genetics and technology make it clear that at fertilization a new, unique and genetically complete human being comes into existence

    Go fuck yourselves, seriously; then go fuck yourselves some more.

  20. dianne says

    @22: I never have gotten out a “pro-lifer” any coherent explanation of what they mean by a “genetically complete human being” and what the implications are for twins and chimeras. Because I don’t see any way around the conclusion that chimeras are two people and identical twins one, if one uses this definition to declare something a “complete human being”.

  21. says

    In the aftermath of Dr. Halappanavar’s death, I noticed that many Irish “pro-lifers” tried to establish a distinction between “abortion” and “medical termination.” We’d find it laughable, were the circumstances less tragic.

    This.
    For all that’s medically important, I had an abortion (a so called missed abortion which is a subset of miscarriage)followed by a D&C, which used to be a common abortion-procedure, yet for our pro-life friends I’m still a good one because I didn’t kill a baby!

    Dianne
    Not only do they export their maternal deaths because women who are at high risk but not in immediate danger will go to the UK, they also use verrrry narrow limits, especially concerning time.
    You probably count as maternal death if you manage to strangle yourself with the umbical cord in a freak accident…

  22. dianne says

    Not only do they export their maternal deaths because women who are at high risk but not in immediate danger will go to the UK, they also use verrrry narrow limits, especially concerning time.

    Good point. It’s clearly not an honest definition and certainly not comparable to the surprisingly inclusive US definition of pregnancy related mortality, which includes (IIRC) all deaths of pregnant women and women who have delivered within one year. It catches not just women who die because Catholic hospitals refuse to allow life saving abortions, but also women who die of battering by their domestic partners and those who die in auto accidents because a nasty contraction catches them by surprise while driving and they lose control of the car and run into a tree. Also those who die of completely unrelated problems, but that’s pretty rare.

    You probably count as maternal death if you manage to strangle yourself with the umbical cord in a freak accident…

    But that’s obviously unrelated to pregnancy because it occurred after delivery…ha!

  23. raven says

    The comments on the link echo a common theme I’ve seen reported: Savita died because she had a severe infection unrelated to her miscarriage.

    Which is false. One caused the other.

    This is how Ireland keeps it maternal mortality low despite the extreme incompetence of its doctors:

    It’s easy to lie with statistics.

    They can always claim that women don’t die from pregnancy or miscarriages.

    They die of septicemia, septic shock, DIC, or hemorrhage. As a last resort they can always die of heart failure. That these are the results of pregnancies or miscarriages gone wrong is simply ignored.

    If they are devout Catholics and you think they are making stuff up, then probably they are.

  24. says

    Just reading the first sentence of that clusterfuck:

    The death of Mrs. Savita Halappanavar and her unborn child in University Hospital Galway on the 28 October last was a devastating personal tragedy for her husband and family.

    Notice who is already absent?
    Savita Halappanavar.
    It was a tragedy for her husband and her family, but dying a slow death in agony wasn’t a personal tragedy for her.
    Bitches ain’t shit.

  25. raven says

    Maternal death rate ‘up to four times higher than CSO figures’
    www. thejournal. ie/ireland-rate-of-maternal-deaths-689729-…

    by Gavan Reilly – in 32 Google+ circles

    2 days ago – IRELAND’S RATE of maternal deaths is still among the lowest in the world – but … Of the six deaths which came directly as as a result of maternity, three were …. Also doesn’t take into account the number of pregnant Irish women who travel ….. Eurozone finance ministers meet (yet again) to try to fix Greece …

    Hmmm, according to an Irish source, the real maternal death rate in Ireland may be 4 times higher than they claim.

    The usual. Jesus gets all sad when people tell the truth.

  26. dianne says

    Hmmm, according to an Irish source, the real maternal death rate in Ireland may be 4 times higher than they claim.

    So, there true rate is likely around 28 per 100,000, which is about twice that of the US’s. And-admittedly without looking at the primary data, so could be wrong-they probably still aren’t using as permissive a definition. Also, the US’s maternal mortality rate is pathetically high due to lack of insurance, underinsurance, increased risk factors for women of minority race or ethnicity (including an increased risk due to prejudice), etc. AND that’s not counting the women who try to make it to Britain but die in British hospitals due to delays in care. In summary: Irish obstetrics kills.

  27. dianne says

    From raven’s article: “Two of the six women who died coincidentally to maternity died of metastatic cancer, two from substance abuse, one from lymphoma and one died in a traffic accident.”

    The two who died of metastatic cancer MAY have lived longer or even been cured if they’d been treated properly. The one who died of lymphoma almost certainly could have. Five year survival for young people with lymphoma is 75-80+% in comparable countries. It’s rare to see someone who is treated for a newly diagnosed lymphoma die within 9 months. Of course, it’s possible that she got pregnant in end stage disease, but unlikely since most women who have been treated multiply for lymphoma are not very fertile. The two from substance abuse may have been self-medicating against depression brought on by being forced to maintain a pregnancy. The traffic accident…hard to say without further details.

    In short, these are NOT definitively unrelated deaths. Sorry, try again.

  28. says

    But that’s obviously unrelated to pregnancy because it occurred after delivery…ha!

    If they can call an embryo a baby I can call that a pregnancy related death!

    And well, you can’t include suicide from PPT as maternal death because it would mean that babies don’t shit rainbows and everything is wonderful!

  29. PatrickG says

    @ raven

    Which is false. One caused the other.

    Oh, absolutely. I hope I made it clear in my earlier comment that I completely agree with you. I’m just en-fucking-raged by the ridiculously low standards of journalism surrounding this.

    But then, it’s people on the side of common decency who are “politicizing” this.

  30. mythbri says

    @bradleybetts

    I was aware that those weren’t iknklast’s words – I apologize for not being clear.

    What I was trying to indicate was my disgust that the idea that Savita “couldn’t be saved anyway” somehow excuses the fact that her pain was nowhere near adequately managed – so even believing that she was going to die no matter what, the fact that she was forced to suffer as she did is extremely reprehensible.

  31. says

    But the catholic strategy is quite clear:
    Issue verrrrry vague and unclear policies
    Let people wonder and make up their minds themselves
    Punish those who do heavily
    Shrug your shoulders in public and declare that it’s not your fault if those stupid doctors let the woman die, it was clearly allowed!

  32. jose says

    Giliell has it right. They are intentionally ambiguous, intentionally misleading, and pushing against clarifying medical guidelines, trying to stall and obstruct as much as possible every step in that direction, in order to:

    – Effectively scare doctors out of doing anything related to abortion.
    – Claim it has nothing to do with them when people die, it was those incompetent doctors.

    It really is sleazy.

  33. mythbri says

    For anyone who may be interested, here is a link to an article about Ireland’s maternal death statistics:

    http://www.medicalindependent.ie/page.aspx?title=maternal_death_%E2%80%93_into_the_great_unknown

    From the article:

    “We believe that that situation is not as rosy as it would appear to be. In fact, we are certain that it is not as rosy, ” Dr O’Hare stated.

    The 2005 WHO report acknowledges the difficulties surrounding data collection in some countries. According to the report, “even in developed countries where routine registration of deaths is in place, maternal deaths may be underreported, and identification of the true numbers of maternal deaths may require additional special investigations into the causes of deaths”.

    “We are not saying that Ireland is the only country that has problems with data collection but we are absolutely sure that Ireland has problems in that respect,” Dr O’Hare said.

    In January 2009, Ireland joined the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) in the UK, an independent charity that for the last 50 years has worked to improve the health of mothers by carrying out confidential inquiries into maternal deaths.

    As a result of joining this initiative, a reliable record of maternal mortality in Ireland will be available for the very first time. The first Irish figures will be included in the organisation’s 2013 report.

    So…more accurate data incoming, hopefully.

  34. raven says

    AN INTERNATIONAL symposium on maternal healthcare in Dublin at the weekend has concluded that abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother.

    Eamon O’Dwyer, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynaecology at NUI Galway and a conference organiser, said its outcome would provide “clarity and confirmation” to doctors and legislators dealing with these issues.

    This is the latest lie of the forced birthers/female slavers.

    Abortion is never needed to save the life of a mother.

    This meeting was held at the medical school attached to the hospital where Savita died, a few months before she died.

    It was repeated by Richard Morlock, the Indiana christofascist who promptly lost his senate election.

    BJA:

    Despite increasing experience in the use of drugs to reduce PAP (pulmonary arterial pressure, the clinical course of pregnancy complicated by severe PPH (primary pulmonary hypertension) is usually fatal.

    There are a lot of conditions that combine with pregnancy to make death a possible complication.

    Getting pregnant with pulmonary arterial hypertension, PAH, is often fatal. It depends on the severity of the disease and what treatments are used, but even the best treatment in an ICU can be fatal.

  35. Q.E.D says

    – Whereas abortion is the direct and intentional destruction of an unborn baby and is gravely immoral in all circumstances, this is different from medical treatments which do not directly and intentionally seek to end the life of the unborn baby. Current law and medical guidelines in Ireland allow nurses and doctors in Irish hospitals to apply this vital distinction in practice while upholding the equal right to life of both a mother and her unborn baby.

    This obfuscatory “have my cake and eat it too” language reminds me of the “If by whiskey” speech of a Mississippi congressman:

    My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:

    If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

    But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
    This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise

  36. says

    The Bishops just spout Catholic boilerplate without having the guts to say either: “The doctors screwed up, they could and should have gone ahead and done what was necessary to save the mother under the Principle of Double Effect” or “The doctors did right; too bad for Mom” (though one suspects they mean the latter).

    Take a fucking position, assholes, and defend it, so we can see what you’re really made of. If you’re going to style yourselves the arbiters and guardians of morality, then act like it: quit putting out weasely statements full of ambiguity and plausible deniability like some goddamn politician.

  37. manojjoseph says

    Fr. Paul Thelakat, spokesperson for the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church (an eastern rite and part of the Roman Catholic Church) actually says “Had the people concerned followed Catholic morality, Savita’s life could have perhaps been saved.”
    http://bit.ly/RgIW7y

    I say more about it here:
    http://bit.ly/10RXQCY

  38. raven says

    “Had the people concerned followed Catholic morality, Savita’s life could have perhaps been saved.”

    Had the docs done what was right, she probably would still be alive.

    Catholic morality is an oxymoron like giant microbes or intelligent Tea Partier.

    BTW, manojjoseph is using BLIND LINKS.

    Watch our for blind links. I have zero idea if those links go to malware sites. In fact, it is likely they don’t. But it is your computer, so anyone who wants to can let us know if they are OK.

  39. says

    Take a fucking position, assholes, and defend it, so we can see what you’re really made of.

    Is that really necessary? If, at this point, you’re still unsure what they’re made of, you’ve probably been asleep at the keyboard for the last 2,000 years.

  40. says

    @44: Me, no. But you know as well as I do that there are plenty of people who have been and still are indeed asleep at the era-appropriate-media-interface. If faced with a definite answer — exactly what, by Catholic morality, should the doctors have done? — instead of obfuscation, a few of them just might wake up.

  41. F [disappearing] says

    Catholic priests, sit down and shut the fuck up.

    I’ve long since moved to the Fuck Off And Die department.

  42. Pteryxx says

    What I was trying to indicate was my disgust that the idea that Savita “couldn’t be saved anyway” somehow excuses the fact that her pain was nowhere near adequately managed – so even believing that she was going to die no matter what, the fact that she was forced to suffer as she did is extremely reprehensible.

    That’s also part of Catholic medical ethics (…the word Catholic should imply automatic scarequotes around the following terms, nowadays…) as mentioned in comments in Ophelia’s discussion of the Ethical and Religious Directives.

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/11/start-at-the-beginning/#comment-350164

    Regarding the CCB’s ERD, I am hoping that Ophelia will be giving very special attention to Directive 61, and the matter of patients not being “deprived of consciousness” while being helped to appreciate the experience of “redemptive suffering” if they are in pain while they are dying.

  43. says

    This goes back to the Catholic Doctrine of Double Effect, which I can’t help but bring up in these discussions. You see the idea hinted at in the Statement here:

    “Whereas abortion is the direct and intentional destruction of an unborn baby and is gravely immoral in all circumstances, this is different from medical treatments which do not directly and intentionally seek to end the life of the unborn baby.”

    The key words are “direct and intentional.” It is simply silly for Catholics to cite passages like this to claim that Catholic law would have allowed the doctors to save Savita. Aborting the fetus while Savita was miscarrying would have been both a direct and intentional act against the fetus, which still had a heartbeat.

    The doctrine of double effect is designed to grant wiggle room for procedures such as tube removal in ectopic pregnancies, something unnecessary when treating ectopic pregnancies but that still saves a woman’s life. T

    he more I read about Savita’s case the more convinced I become that double effect is designed to simply obfuscate the moral issue. A woman died unnecessarily, and that’s simply wrong. Savita’s death shows that double effect does not help all women with life-threatening conditions as a result of pregnancy.

  44. neXus says

    There is one person with his head in the right place over there:

    2.) @Bernadette asked, “Was the situation caused by the pregnancy or by an bad infection? Was the baby the source of the infection being untreatable? Could this woman have died of this infection even if she was not pregnant?”

    Answer: The infection was caused due to miscarriage being allowed to last simply because the fetus still had a heart beat, causing unnecessary, prolonged exposure of highly vulnerable epithelial tissue.

    It’s a refreshing bit of reason from someone who knows some modern biology; I’d recommend you read his whole statement here:
    http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2012/11/25/irish-bishops-issue-statement-on-death-of-savita-halappanavar/#comment-81351

  45. bobo says

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/28/documentary-shows-catholic-positions-on-abortion-contraception-are-relatively-new/

    Well, it looks like the catholic church hasn’t *always* been in favour of women dying from a pregnancy

    from the article:

    “On the issue of abortion, the documentary explains that the Catholic Church had a more pro-choice approach during the 16th century than it does now. At the time, the church believed in a wide range instances where abortions were permissible. Later in the 17th century, scientists came to believe that the fetus was conceived in its final form and merely enlarged over time. As a result, the Catholic Church took a more prohibitive view on abortion. Though our understanding of fetal development has changed dramatically, the Church has not changed its position.”

    From what I have seen in the video, one of the church fathers believed that the very act of sex was sinful, and that the ONLY reason people should be allowed to have sex is for procreation (the churh realized that they could not stop people from wanting to have children). However, since sex is so sinful, the children born of ‘passion’ are also born sinners, b/c the act of sex is so dirty, the result of sex is also dirty and horrible!

  46. loopyj says

    It’s not so much that they feel qualified to interfere with medical decisions – it’s that the feel entitled by their irrational and dangerous beliefs to deny people the medical care they need.

  47. chrisv says

    But who else can we count on to tell us how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Inquiring minds simply MUST know.

  48. No Light says

    WRT the e-coli thing, as I mentioned on the original thread here, e coli is in our shit. Her ruptured amniotic sac and dilated cervix were essentially a giant wound leading directly to a sterile space (the uterus) right next. to where shit leaves the body.

    The amount of godbothering, medically illiterate dipshits I’ve seen saying “Oh see she had e coli which is food poisoning, nothing to do with pregnancy so there” has forced me to seriously consider going fucking rogue and performing my piglet experiment on each and every one of them, clergy included.

    Anyone got a link to my experiment? I’m on my phone.

  49. Pteryxx says

    No Light, here you go:

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/11/14/its-time-to-abort-the-catholic-church/comment-page-2/#comment-493484

    So Jim, the only way to recreate this scenario in a way that might be easier to grasp for you, is to offer up the following scenario:

    A man is kidnapped by someone. He’s knocked unconscious, and when he wakes up he finds a note. It tells him that his belly has been sliced open, and a dead foetal piglet has been placed in his abdominal cavity. …

  50. kayden says

    Actually, I don’t fault the Catholic priests for speaking up. I fault the Irish people for allowing the Catholic church to have such a great influence on Ireland’s public policies and legal system.

  51. says

    Wait – a statement issued by a group that has no knowledge of what they’re discussing and whom we shouldn’t be paying any attention to.

    It’s not signed Jesse by any chance is it?

  52. anteprepro says

    Actually, I don’t fault the Catholic priests for speaking up. I fault the Irish people for allowing the Catholic church to have such a great influence on Ireland’s public policies and legal system.

    nolajim lives!