The Ethics of Medical Homicide and MutilationO'Malley, Austin
Religion
The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation
O'Malley, Austin
Medical ethics
As was said in Chapter III, a fetus of six completed calendar or
solar months (not lunar--the duration of gestation is often reckoned
in lunar months by obstetricians) is viable provided it is cared for
by competent physicians in a hospital. Otherwise it is not viable,
except in a strictly technical sense; it will not live more than a
few days or weeks.
A full seven-months infant may be reared with proper feeding and
skilled care; a six-months infant may be reared (with difficulty) in
a hospital with skilled care. If it is certain that the removal of a
six-months fetus will here and now save the life of a mother (a very
difficult matter to judge by the best diagnosticians), this removal
may be done, provided the infant is delivered in circumstances where
skilled care, incubator, and proper food are obtainable; otherwise
the removal is not justifiable.
The Council of Lerida, in Catalonia, in the year 524, decreed that
abortionists of any kind must do penance all their lives, and if
they are clerics they are to be suspended perpetually from all
ecclesiastical ministration.
The Council of Worms, under Hadrian II., in the year 868,[91] also
judged women who procure abortion as certainly guilty of murder.
[91] Cap. 35.
In the _Corpus Juris_,[92] among the decretals of Gregory, there is
the following law: "If any one, through lust or hatred, does anything
to a man or woman, or gives them any drug, so that they cannot either
generate or conceive, or bear children, he is to be treated as a
murderer."
[92] Lib. v, tit. xii, c. 5.
Sixtus V., in the Constitution _Effraenatam_, October 29, 1588,
mentions a decree of the Sixth Synod of Constantinople, in session
in 680 and 681, which subjects those who perform abortion, or kill a
fetus, to the punishment inflicted on murderers. Sixtus then decreed
that any one who effects the abortion, directly or indirectly, of an
immature fetus, whether the fetus is animated, formed, or not, either
by blows, poison, drugs, or potions, or tasks of hard labor imposed
on pregnant women, or any other method, however subtle or obscure
it be, is guilty of murder, and is to be punished accordingly.
He recalls all ecclesiastical privileges from clerics who cause
abortion, and says that they are to be reckoned as murderers
according to the decree of the Council of Trent,[93] and he makes a
law that abortionists may never be promoted to orders.
[93] Session xiv, _De Reformatione_, cap. 7.
In the fifth paragraph he says: "Moreover, we decree that the same
penalties are incurred (1) by those who give potions and poisons to
women to induce sterility or prevent conception, or who cause these
drugs to be administered, and (2) by the women themselves who freely
and consciously take these drinks."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account