Monday School: RC Hospital says fetus is not life

It’s the second day of a new week, which means it’s time! It’s time for… Monday School! Your weekly filling of “The Rational Corrective To All That Nonsense They Tried To Teach You Yesterday!”

Today I come to you with the mother of all contradictions, this time coming from a Catholic Hospital of all places. People of faith prefer to use these hospitals, confident that their religious views would be respected and what not. They apparently feel more comfortable attending a hospital like that or whatever. It turns out if a patient has a problem with that hospital and sues them for malpractice, even a Catholic Hospital will abandon their religious beliefs just to save a few bucks.

Such is the case of the wrongful death suit being levied in Colorado against St. Thomas More Hospital. The case is over the death of a 31 year old woman who was 27 weeks pregnant with twin boys. All three of them died on New Year’s Eve in 2006 after the hospital failed to contact her specialist to get instructions on what to do. According to the Colorado Independent, the attorneys for Catholic Health Initiatives’ had the audacity to actually argue that in the case of wrongful death, the term person only applies to people who are born, not those who die in utero.

In other words, a Catholic Hospital is actually trying to beat this suit by claiming that life begins at birth, not conception. They are trying to tell a man who lost his wife and two kids that his sons at 27 weeks do not qualify to be counted as people.

Are you fucking kidding me?

This is just another example of the hypocrisy and selective observance many Americans have concering their own teachings from the Catholic Church. Like this Hospital, they’re all for the teachings of Christ until someone sues them for a crapload of money. Now I know what some people are going to say, it’s not the church but their lawyers making this case. We’ll it’s still their lawyers. By not saying anything, they’re approving of the case and claims their attorneys are making!

Their defence is an enormous departure from Catholic teachings, which has always claimed that life begins at conception. I personally disagree with it myself but to try to claim that a fetus 27 weeks into pregnancy isn’t life smacks in the face of this hospital’s own religious practices. We’ve all heard the argument from countless ‘pro-lifers’ who claim to fight for the ‘Sanctity of Life’ and the all claim the same thing: life starts at conception.

So what do we learn from this? It looks like a Catholic Hospital is willing to be a-okay with the idea that a ‘fetus’ (even at 7 months) still isn’t a person when it comes to their own economic interests. Yet if a woman tries to abort a fetus only one or two months in, that same church has no problem calling the fetus a person regardless of how far the pregnancy has progressed. This is a very sticky contradiction that needs to be clarified. Does a life begin a conception or birth?

It would be interesting to see how far this appeal goes. What if it goes to the Supremes? How would pro-choice supporters feel if the judges were asked to decide if a fetus should be legally considered a person? That’s not a decision that would be received well on both sides of the issue. This question could potentially overturn Roe vs. Wade if it went that far. This is a case where the parents didn’t want to lose their kids, but did due to the malpractice of the hospital in question. Does wrongful death apply?

Let’s look at this from another standpoint. Let’s say some dude walks into a bank and robs it at gunpoint. During the robbery a woman is shot and dies. The woman who died just happened to be pregnant at the time and the unborn child dies too. Here’s the question that’s going to bake your noodle: do we charge the armed robber with one of murder or two?

According to this Catholic Hospital, the answer is one.

I realize this is not an easy question to answer but the Catholic Hospital in question isn’t doing themselves any favours by contradicting the polices of their own church. It makes them look superficial and would only pursue their religious teachings if it doesn’t cost their bottom line. Would you really want to attend a hospital that doesn’t hesitate to jettison their alleged beliefs just for a few bucks?

The fact is if you’re going to claim that life begins at conception, your cause loses its momentum when your lawyers argue otherwise just to avoid a lawsuit. What it tells us that the only God these Catholics seem to bow to is the almighty dollar.

So what do you think?

Does life really start at conception or birth?

Should this hospital be sued for one or three counts of wrongful death?

I’m curious to see how everyone responds to this question.

Peter