A reader asks:
I address you most respectfully to ask your opinion on a subject about which all of us who are interested in a better world would like to find the answers to certain problems that seem to have as their aim to draw us away from good deeds and to destroy us little by little. The question would be: In what way would the Church accept the act of abortion without considering it a violation of the law of God?
Thanking you in advance for your reply, and at the same time congratulating you on this space which truly helps us young people to have another support for reaching a better judgment on the problems that concern our world.
Answer:
The natural moral law (and consequently the doctrine of the Church’s Magisterium) never accepts the voluntary and direct act of abortion. It could happen that some particular person performs it with inculpable and invincible ignorance of its malice; in such a case he would not sin on account of his ignorance, but not because the action in itself becomes good (it remains to be seen whether such a case of ignorance can actually occur or not). Different is the case of an act that is not abortive in itself, but which has as its consequence an abortive effect; this is what is called indirect abortion. Let us analyze the two cases, which are essentially different from the moral point of view.
1. Direct abortion. In the Encyclical Evangelium vitae, Pope John Paul II has declared in very clear words: “by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops—who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine—I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church” (no. 62).
2. Indirect abortion. Different from the foregoing is what is called indirect abortion. It is, in reality, an application of the principles of double effect and of the indirect or in causa voluntary act. Understood from this point of view, it is clear that the term “indirect abortion” is not a happy one, because in reality it is not a matter of an action in which abortion is a means to attain something (the health of the patient or the regulation of births), but of an action in which abortion is a “tolerated and unwilled effect”.
The question raised here is the following: is it licit to perform a therapeutic action (cause) from which, apart from the intention of the one performing it, besides the health of the patient (good effect) there also follows abortion (bad effect)? In reality, the conditions required for a correct application of the principle of double effect are met only in very few cases in which the “nonviable” fetus (which cannot live outside the mother’s womb) is already dead or irremediably condemned to die by nature itself; there the action is not directly aimed at the removal of the fetus, but this follows with fair probability, and the fact that there is near certainty of its imminent and inevitable death provides the “proportionate cause”. Concerning this type of action, the Charter for Health Care Workers states: “When abortion comes as the foreseen but neither intended nor willed consequence, merely tolerated, of a therapeutic act that is unavoidable for the health of the mother, it is morally legitimate. Abortion is the indirect consequence of an act that is not in itself abortive” (Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, Charter for Health Care Workers, 142).
The cases in which this principle sometimes applies are the following:
–“Abruptio placentae”, or the partial or total detachment of the placenta from the uterine cavity.
–Polyhydramnios, or the abnormal excess (or malformation) of amniotic fluid.
–The recourse to certain drugs (such as oxytocin) to check possible hemorrhages.
–Ectopic pregnancies: concerning ectopic, or out-of-place, pregnancy, there are several possibilities: attempting to move the ectopic fetus to its normal site, or armed watchfulness (to intervene as soon as the rupture of the fetal sac occurs), or laparotomy if the fetus is already viable (in this case it would be a simple acceleration of delivery).
Author: Fr. Miguel Ángel Fuentes
Source: El teólogo responde
