The Ethics of Medical Homicide and MutilationO'Malley, Austin
Religion
The Ethics of Medical Homicide and Mutilation
O'Malley, Austin
Medical ethics
The assertion that an undeveloped fetus in the womb is not as
valuable as the mother of a family is beside the question, and in
certain vital distinctions it is untrue. Any human life, as such,
whether in a fetus or an adult, is as valuable as another, inasmuch
as no one but God has any authority to destroy it, except when it has
lost its right to existence through culpable action. Secondly, the
quality of motherhood is an accidental addition to a mother's life,
not substantial as is the life itself. This quality of motherhood
does not create any juridic imbalance of values which justifies the
destruction of the rights inherent in the fetus. That the fetus may
not be able to enjoy these rights if the mother dies is, again,
an irrelevant consideration. There is no question of a comparison
of values. A life is a life, whether in mother or fetus, and the
destruction of an innocent life by any one except its creator, God,
is essentially an evil thing, like blasphemy. An innocent fetus
an hour old may not be directly killed to save the lives of all
the mothers in the world. Insisting on such comparisons supposes
ignorance and sentimental opposition to truth. It is a good deed
to save a mother's life; but such saving by killing an innocent
human being ceases to be good and becomes indescribably evil, an
enormous subversion of the order of the natural law, as it is a
usurpation of the dominion over life possessed by God alone. If I
owe a man a vast sum of money and the payment of this debt will ruin
me and my children, it would be a good thing for me and them to
have this creditor put out of the way by death, but that fact is no
justification whatever for me to kill the man. The fetus in the womb
in a case where there is question of therapeutic abortion is like
this creditor: it would be well for the mother to have this fetus out
of the way, but that is no justification whatever for her to kill
the fetus, or to let it be killed by a physician. The physician who
kills such a fetus is exactly like a hired bravo who assassinates a
troublesome creditor for a fee, except that the physician does the
nasty job for less money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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