Ad III. Necessitate cogente, licitam esse laparotomiam ad extra-hendos e sinu matris ectopicos conceptos, dummodo et foetus et matris vitae, quantum fieri potest, serio et opportune provideatur. In sequenti Feria vi., die 6 ejusdem mensis et anni . . . SSmus responsiones EE. ac RR. Patrum approbavit. {21} The third question proposed by the bishop is: "Is laparotomy licit when performed for extrauterine pregnancy or ectopic gestation?" The approved answer of the Holy Office to this question is: "In a case of necessity, laparotomy for the purpose of removing an ectopic foetus (_conceptus_) from the abdomen of the mother is licit, provided the lives of both the foetus and the mother, as far as is possible, are carefully and fitly guarded." The expression, "dummodo et foetus et matris vitae, quantum fieri potest, serio et opportune provideatur," is capable of various translations and interpretations. The words might have this meaning: "In a case of necessity you may do laparotomy and remove an ectopic gestation, provided you do not kill either the mother or the foetus." If that is the interpretation, the decree means that we may never remove an unviable ectopic foetus when we know that the foetus is alive, because removal will kill it. The sentence can also be translated in this sense: "In a case of necessity, you may do laparotomy and remove an ectopic foetus from the mother, provided you take full care to save mother and child if that is possible." If that is the signification, it is evidently very different from the first interpretation. It would mean: do the laparotomy, remove the foetus, and if you possibly can save both mother and foetus do so, but if you can not, take the best means you can to save one or the other. If the decree refers only to cases in which the foetus is viable, it would appear to be unnecessary--we need no decree of the Holy Office to let us do a laparotomy to remove a viable foetus. If it does not refer to a viable foetus, it refers to an unviable foetus, but to remove an unviable foetus is to either kill it or to hasten its death. Génicot (_Institutiones Theologiae Moralis_, Louvain, 1902, vol. i. p. 358) has this interpretation of the decree: "In conceptione extra-uterina licebit sane recurrere ad laparotomiam similemve operationem, quando aliqua etiam tenuissima spes affulget salvandi infantem, simul ac mater fere certo liberabitur. . . . Ubi vero nulla spes hujusmodi {22} affulget, neque in hoc casu licebit abortum directe inducere, etiamsi foetus certo moriturus sit antequam in lucem edatur, et baptismum recipere nequeat. Etenim S. Inqu., dum provocat ad responsum 19 August, 1888, satis indicat abortus inductionem a se haberi tamquam operationem directe occisivam foetus ideoque semper illicitam."