Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 42764-h.htm or 42764-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42764/42764-h/42764-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42764/42764-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See http://archive.org/details/theethicsofmedic00omaluoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. The text (page 234) contains one chemical formula in which the numbers enclosed in curly braces are subscripted (C{17}H{21}NO{4}). THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL HOMICIDE AND MUTILATION by AUSTIN O'MALLEY, M.D., PH.D., LL.D. [Illustration: printer logo] New York The Devin-Adair Company 1922 Nihil obstat Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D. _Censor Librorum_ Imprimatur [see Transcriber's note below] JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY Archbishop of New York Copyright, 1919, by The Devin-Adair Company All Rights Reserved by The Devin-Adair Company Third Printing Printed in U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAPTER I GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE PAGE There is a Supreme Being who alone is master of life. The Natural Law. The nature and determinants of morality. Probabilism. Permissive suicide. Suicide is illicit. Conscience. Homicide, direct and indirect. Self-defence. Formal and material aggressors. Legalized homicide. Bibliography 1-22 CHAPTER II GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING MUTILATION Mutilation. Canonical irregularity. Self-mutilation. The double effect in morality. Direct and indirect mutilation. The State and mutilation. The dominion of the State 23-32 CHAPTER III WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN? Ancient and modern opinions. The fetus is animated at the moment of conception. The single cell as the primal life-organ. Cell growth and division. Germ cells. The development of the embryo. Fetal viability. Theories of development. The Aristotelian and Thomistic opinions. The formal principle. A soul exists. The primordial cell is a sufficient organ for the soul. Metabolism in the cell. Cell motion. Animal heat and energy. Life in separated tissues. The soul in monsters 33-82 CHAPTER IV WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE END? The heart and life. Resuscitation after apparent death. The last sacraments in apparent death. Suspended animation. The living fetus in the womb of a dying or dead mother. Methods of resuscitation. Signs of death 83-91 CHAPTER V ABORTION