McMahon: Choosing life
May 17, 2010, 7:57 PM | Updated: Jun 5, 2012, 3:27 am
As far back as I can remember, I was taught to respect authority — law enforcement, the military, anyone in charge, most especially if it was a member of the Catholic clergy.
Do what the parish priest tells you and if it’s a bishop, do it instantly and with a smile. Don’t dare to question anyone in that high office.
But this time, I must as a matter of morality after reading the story in “The Arizona Republic” on Saturday about our Bishop Thomas Olmstead calling for the “automatic excommunication” of a nun and administrator at St. Joseph’s hospital — related to the termination of an 11-week pregnancy in order to save the mother’s life. For me it was clear the hospital’s ethics committee, doctors and the mother analyzed the case & concluded this was the only alternative due to a rare and often fatal condition.
The pregnancy, according to hospital sources, would have most certainly ended the mother’s life. Now, let me make my position on abortion clear: I absolutely believe that life begins at conception and that only for the most serious reasons can that life be terminated. If the choice is only to save the mother, lose the 11-week old fetus or lose both, I think St. Joe’s made the right decision. I wonder if that opinion is grounds for excommunication.
