Sister Margaret McBride
In November, a women 11 weeks pregnant came into a Phoenix hospital with a life threatening condition that needed immediate action to save her life. She was given the choice to abort her baby or keep it and informed about how keeping the pregnancy would endanger her life. She made her choice to live and the Nun on staff thought that saving the life of the mother followed Directive 47 in the U.S. Catholic Church’s ethical guidelines for health care providers — that allows, in some circumstance, procedures that could kill the fetus to save the mother. Upon hearing that Sister Margaret McBride allowed the abortion to save the mother’s life, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted immediate excommunicated the nun.
It is certainly a compelling reason to abort an 11 week old fetus to save the life of the mother, especially if the fetus would not have survived had the mother died. I think the Sister McBride made the correct and humane decision. The most compelling argument in the NPR article was this part:
“In the case of priests who are credibly accused and known to be guilty of sexually abusing children, they are in a sense let off the hook,” Doyle says.
Doyle says no pedophile priests have been excommunicated. When priests have been caught, he says, their bishops have protected them, and it has taken years or decades to defrock them, if ever.
“Yet in this instance we have a sister who was trying to save the life of a woman, and what happens to her? The bishop swoops down [and] declares her excommunicated before he even looks at all the facts of the case,” Doyle says.
The church’s suggestion would be to let both the mother and the fetus die, rather than abort to save the life of the mother. It is a double standard for the church to excommunicate a nun for saving the life of this women and then take no action to excommunicate priests who rape children repeatedly, but rather move them from one parish to another.
during pregnancy directly correlate with behavioral issues in their child at ages 4-9 years.
pregnant. PBDEs are a type of flame retardant found in fabrics, furniture and mattresses. They are most prevalent in foams.
increase the growth of already present cancerous cells. These findings augment the all to familiar adage: “Too much of a good thing is a bad thing”. It should come as no surprise that a healthy balance of anything, including folic acid is the best way to enhance the body’s functions. An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but 100 apples will certainly make you sick.
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