Misunderstood teaching
No Catholic can be untouched by the death in Ireland of Savita Halappanavar, the 31-year-old expecting mother who was denied a potentially life-saving termination of pregnancy, a decision reportedly justified with the words, “This is a Catholic country”.
“The Catholic Church should now review whether its pro-life teachings, especially on abortion, are truly understood in all their nuances, or whether the manner in which they are communicated might create unwelcome misinterpretations, as they clearly did in Ireland.” (CNS photo/Reuters)
Our first concern and prayers must be with the family of Mrs Halappanavar, especially with her husband whose dreams of a happy family have been so cruelly shattered.
It has been unfortunate that some pro-choice activists took to the public forum with opportunistic anti-Catholic rhetoric which took scant account of the Church’s teachings, and cared not to interrogate what exactly the doctor meant with the statement, “This is a Catholic country”.
One of Ireland’s most prominent pro-life leaders, Dr Patricia Casey, has said that Mrs Halappanavar’s pregnancy should have been terminated immediately. When a woman presents herself with a miscarriage while leaking amniotic fluid, as Mrs Halappanavar did, it is the duty of the doctor to immediately remove the foetus, whether it has a heartbeat or none.
This is the position of Irish medical law, and it is the teaching of the Catholic Church, as the physician who referred to Ireland as “a Catholic country” should have known.
Pope Pius XII outlined the Church’s position more than 60 years ago. In a 1951 address he said: “If the saving of the life of the future mother…should urgently require a surgical act or other therapeutic treatment which would have as an accessory consequence, in no way desired nor intended but inevitable, the death of the foetus, such an act could no longer be called a direct attempt on an innocent life.
“Under these conditions the operation can be lawful, like other similar medical interventions – granted always that a good of high worth is concerned, such as life, and that it is not possible to postpone the operation until after the birth of the child, nor to have recourse to other efficacious remedies.”
Pope Pius invoked the theological principle of “double effect”. Accordingly, physicians must do everything in their power to save both the mother and the child. If the attending doctor decides that the mother’s life can be saved only by means which cause the foetus’ death, then this intervention would not be categorised as an abortion.
But if the lives of both mother and child can be saved, the principle of double effect does not apply.
The bishops of Ireland have pointed out: “The Catholic Church has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother. By virtue of their common humanity, a mother and her unborn baby are both sacred with an equal right to life.”
In short, neither Catholic teaching nor Irish law precluded the necessary medical intervention in trying to save Mrs Halappanavar’s life.
And yet, the fallout for the Church and the pro-life movement has been immense. Large sections of the Irish public have held the Catholic Church liable for Mrs Halappanavar’s death, especially on account of the “Catholic country” line.
With that statement, the Church and the pro-life movement have been held complicit in Mrs Halappanavar’s death, the facts notwithstanding.
Public pressure will now doubtless accelerate the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.
The Catholic Church, meanwhile, is being accused of having created a culture where a doctor supposedly felt so intimidated as to deny Mrs Halappanavar the treatment which even Pope Pius XII would have green-lighted.
The Irish Church’s reputation, already at a low, is shattered once more – not because an offense was committed, but because of something which many people instinctively expect the Church to be culpable of.
This poses an important question: Why do so many people think, mistakenly, that the Church’s teachings would have obstructed the medical treatment which Mrs Halappanavar required?
The Catholic Church should now review whether its pro-life teachings, especially on abortion, are truly understood in all their nuances, or whether the manner in which they are communicated might create unwelcome misinterpretations, as they clearly did in Ireland.
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