CHICAGO — Chicago's Catholic hospital, Loyola University Health system, continues to argue that its policy of inducing early labor is in accord with United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) guidelines and Catholic moral teaching.
Jill Stanek has written again about the issue in the Illinois Leader. She says that the hospital sent her a copy of its policy. Stanek was criticized and accused of overstatement when she accused Loyola of, in effect, performing abortion on children with severe disabilities such as anencephaly.
Loyola's policy says in part, “Early induction is performed at LUHS only if the fetus has reached 24 weeks of gestation — currently accepted as the stage of viability — which is consistent with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Health Care Services. In addition, early induction for fetuses with anomalies is only performed at Loyola if the fetus has anencephaly or Potter's disease (underdevelopment of the brain and kidneys, respectively). Both of these conditions are fatal to the fetus.”
The “stage of viability” cited by Loyola refers to the development stage of a healthy baby with normal development. The hospital's claim to be in accordance with USCCB policies and Catholic moral theology is also said to be erroneous. The Doctrinal Committee of the USCCB issued a statement on children with anencephaly that said the child cannot be induced early only for having the fatal abnormality.
The USCCB's 1998 statement, “Moral Principles Concerning Infants With Anencephaly,” also took to task those who argue that an anencephalic child has a lowered moral status because of his disability and may thus be induced early to hasten death. The statement says, “Doubts about the human dignity of the anencephalic infant, however, have no solid ground, and the benefit of any doubt must be in the child's favor; it is not permitted to terminate or gravely risk the child's life as a means of treating or protecting the mother. Nor is such termination permitted after 'viability' if early delivery endangers the child's life due to complications of prematurity.”
The USCCB sent this statement to Stanek and one from the National Catholic Bioethics Institute that said, “Early induction of labor before term (37 weeks) to relieve emotional distress hastens the death of the child as a means of achieving this presumed good effect and unjustifiably deprives the child of the good of gestation. Induction of labor before term performed simply for the reason that the child has a lethal anomaly is direct abortion.”
See also:
USCCB Doctrinal Committee's Statement
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
