Hi Chrissy,

The Church says that it is always and everywhere evil for an individual to directly intend the death of an innocent person.  There is no exception. 

Beyond that, there is a right to:

• self-defense
• national defense, in a just war, and
• the right to defend the life of another with deadly force, if needed.

It is also permitted to remove an ectopic pregnancy by removing the tube, which indirectly kills the child without the intent to do so.

Mary Ann

Hi Chrissy,

I want to follow-up on Mary Ann's orthodox reply.

I find it very strange that the topic title of your paper assumes certain Catholic teachings which are probably not true.

If this was handed out with no guidelines and no circumstances as to what the circumstances are, I would first, ask the instructor what the circumstances are. If he has no circumstances to give, bring this to the attention of your university president. With no premise in the topic title, I see this as an attack against the Catholic Church.

• Why?

Students go to school to learn, not guess.

• Where do they learn?

From instructors. The instructor is not teaching, but allowing [his/her] students to guess at something that implies a contradiction in Church teachings and I doubt that any students in the class, that are Catholic, have been well catechized.

The president of the university should address the instructor, and instead of acting like the president of the University of Colorado, where Ward Churchill taught, have some courage and throw the teacher out of the university for promoting an anti-Catholic bias.

If the teacher wants to know what the Church believes, it's been out there for 13 years. It's called the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and it can be picked up at the local bookstore.
The instructor should know better and assign a topic title that implies a contradiction in Church Teachings.

Mike

Mary Ann —

You said in your reply to Chrissy:
It is permitted to remove an ectopic pregnancy by removing the tube, which indirectly kills the child without the intent to do so.

• What is an ectopic pregnancy?

Mike

Hi, Mike —

It is pregnancy in the fallopian tube. If the tube is not removed, the baby dies and possibly the mother. You are removing the tube, not attacking the baby. The same principle holds for removing a diseased uterus in a case of a cancer that would be terminal. One may either:

• avoid therapy that would endanger the baby, and risk their own death
• remove the uterus as a lifesaving action that does not attack the baby, nor directly intends its death, or
• one may risk the baby's life and save their own.

A new Saint, Gianna Mola, did the heroic action of foregoing hysterectomy, and I have read of many contemporary modern Catholic women, including a modern candidate for sainthood, name forgotten by yours truly, who forewent radiation and chemo 4.

Mary Ann