Catholic hospital argues that fetuses aren't people

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

Good thing irony isn't a mortal sin....

In Malpractice Case, Catholic Hospital Argues Fetuses Aren’t People

Lori Stodghill was 31-years old, seven-months pregnant with twin boys and feeling sick when she arrived at St. Thomas More hospital in Cañon City on New Year’s Day 2006. She was vomiting and short of breath and she passed out as she was being wheeled into an examination room. Medical staff tried to resuscitate her but, as became clear only later, a main artery feeding her lungs was clogged and the clog led to a massive heart attack. Stodghill’s obstetrician, Dr. Pelham Staples, who also happened to be the obstetrician on call for emergencies that night, never answered a page. His patient died at the hospital less than an hour after she arrived and her twins died in her womb.

But when it came to mounting a defense in the Stodghill case, Catholic Health’s lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head. Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and state laws that fail to protect “unborn persons,” and Catholic Health’s lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering anti-abortion legal arguments. Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.

The Whole Story

[meow2u3]

1. I'm Catholic and I say this is the height of hypocrisy

It seems as if the bishops' stand on life is, "We will support, protect, and defend the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death--unless it costs us money."

Pro-life my foot!

[dhill926]

2. indefensible.....

fucking bastards.....

[okaawhatever]

3. So, does anyone think this headed to scotus is suspicious? Maybe i'm just suspicious but

Ms. Stoghill's family already have a malpractice case with her death. Yes, they may get more money for adding the unborn twins, but why wouldn't Catholic Health settle this out of court? It doesn't make sense that this is going so far. What is their real agenda?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. You suspicions are well-founded, I think...

If they can get the case to the Supreme Court, its a back-door way of proving personhood. Lose the battle, but win the war. Cunningly clever of them.

That being said, I can't believe the church would allow itself to be dragged into it as a litigant (I mean, really, the hypocrisy). I could see them bankrolling a third-party defendant not affiliated with the church. But to stand that close to the manure pile, they're not going to come out smelling fresh and clean.

[Warpy]

6. Well, yes and no. A seven month pregnancy is a month over viability

and ruling personhood of viable fetuses is not that big a stretch. Had those twins been delivered immediately, very likely they'd have survived.

The hospital is being sued because they didn't page down the line of OB docs to get one to come in if the first guy didn't answer his page. They seem to have simply let her die rather than annoy another doctor by telling him they had a moribund patient 7 months pregnant who needed help fast.

I have absolutely no idea why they're fighting a wrongful death suit for viable twins and I have no idea why this is going to the USSC. It's pretty well established law that a viable fetus does have rights separate from maternal rights and that pregnancies that have proceeded beyond viability are terminated only when it has been determined that the fetus is too badly damaged to survive outside the womb. Otherwise, it's a premature birth.

[okaawhatever]

10. Thanks for the info. I also learned from another artilcle that it's the state supreme court

and not the us sc.

[Bake]

4. True, they are hypocrites

But the law is what matters in this case. And if the law says you can't bring a wrongful death action for a fetus, then you can't, period.

You can't sue them for being hypocrites.

Bake, Esq.

[cbrer]

7. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$It's about$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Praise the Lord!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. They lost a ton on the whole pedophilia thing....

Got to make it up somewhere.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

9. Catholic church: "fetuses aren't people when we have to save our own asses"

They're only people when it comes to saving women's lives, which we don't give a rat's ass about.

[Odin2005]

11. Organized religions are all a bunch of scammers.