How far should a doctor go to save a life? What if its a Catholic hospital?
Sister Margaret McBride, the administrator of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, thought that nothing should be spared in her hospital.
A woman entered into the facility, 11 weeks pregnant with her fifth child,with major heart problems, she was said to have by hospital documentation "right heart failure".
the doctors told her that she was very sick, and that her risk of dying was extremely high. The only way that she stood a fighting chance was to eliminate the stress on her body from the pregnancy. The woman agreed to terminate the pregnancy.
St. Joseph's, is a catholic hospital, and the stance on abortion is quite clear, and many thought that it was the churches position to allow both mother and child to die. This was not a path Sister Margaret McBride was willing to take.
she allowed the abortion to take place, she saved that woman's life.
The number one goal of the medical profession, save lives.
News of this spread all over the area, and it was not long until Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted found out. When Bishop Olmsted found out, he proceeded to punish Sister McBride with the most he can allow. She was excommunicated. Sister McBride was excommunicated, for doing the one thing that she felt was right.
How awful is this, She has done all in her power to devote her life to her religion, and when she must make the difficult choice of allowing an innocent person to die and violate all that her medical center is for, or choosing to save their life, which she thought that the church would have supported her on.
I don't think anyone would want to make that choice, but she did without hesitation.
She did it without hesitation because of Directive 47 in the U.S. Catholic Church's ethical guidelines for health care providers, this allows for that very decision that she made. To preserve the mothers life.
She felt that with this, the church that she devoted her life to would thank her for making the decision, but instead, she receives the harshest punishment imaginable.
Where has the soul of the church gone? Why is it doing this? Has the world around it become so jaded, that it has made the church forget why they believe Christ died for their sins?
it appears that some members of the church have accepted the policy that rules and protocol are more important than compassion for people in difficult times.
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