St Thomas University Abortion and Legalization Questions
- Explain the difference between spontaneous and procured abortion. As well as their Ethical impact of each one.
- Why can the contraceptive pill, the IUD and the “morning after” pill also be considered abortifacients?
- Abortion methods, depending on the stage of pregnancy. Explain each one.
- Describe the Roe Vs. Wade case and provide a summary of Norma McCorvey’s life.
- Describe some better alternatives to abortion.
- Read and summarize ERD paragraphs # 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 66, which are the following:
- 45. Abortion (that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability or the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted. Every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the termination of pregnancy before viability is an abortion, which, in its moral context, includes the interval between conception and implantation of the embryo. Catholic health care institutions are not to provide abortion services, even based upon the principle of material cooperation. In this context, Catholic health care institutions need to be 19 Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, Sixth Edition concerned about the danger of scandal in any association with abortion providers. 46. Catholic health care providers should be ready to offer compassionate physical, psychological, moral, and spiritual care to those persons who have suffered from the trauma of abortion.
- 47. Operations, treatments, and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.
- 48. In case of extrauterine pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct abortion.
- 49. For a proportionate reason, labor may be induced after the fetus is viable.
- 50. Prenatal diagnosis is permitted when the procedure does not threaten the life or physical integrity of the unborn child or the mother and does not subject them to disproportionate risks; when the diagnosis can provide information to guide preventative care for the mother or pre- or postnatal care for the child; and when the parents, or at least the mother, give free and informed consent. Prenatal diagnosis is not permitted when undertaken with the intention of aborting an unborn child with a serious defect.
- 51. Nontherapeutic experiments on a living embryo or fetus are not permitted, even with the consent of the parents. Therapeutic experiments are permitted for a proportionate reason with the free and informed consent of the parents or, if the father cannot be contacted, at least of the mother. Medical research that will not harm the life or physical integrity of an unborn child is permitted with parental consent.
- 66. Catholic health care institutions should not make use of human tissue obtained by direct abortions even for research and therapeutic purposes
