Catholic Hospital: It Was 'Morally Wrong' To Argue That A Fetus Is Not A Human In Colorado Court

[hue]

Source: HUFF POST Denver



DENVER — It was a startling assertion that seemed an about-face from church doctrine: A Catholic hospital arguing in a Colorado court that twin fetuses that died in its care were not, under state law, human beings.

When the two-year-old court filing surfaced last month, it triggered an avalanche of criticism – because the legal argument seemed to plainly clash with the church's centuries-old stance that life begins at conception.

But it is also now fueling an already raging debate in Colorado and beyond about whether fetuses should have legal rights and, if so, what kind.

On Monday, the hospital and the state's bishops released a statement acknowledging it was "morally wrong" to make the legal argument.

News of the wrongful death lawsuit came as Colorado lawmakers weigh how far they should go in penalizing acts that harm a fetus, and some worry that the case could diminish the Catholic Church's credibility in advocating more rights for the unborn.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/catholic-hospital-it-was-_n_2616743.html

[louis-t]

1. Unbelievable.

Funny how covering your ass changes your morals.

[cutroot]

2. It's always interesting to watch Hypocrites spin themselves into a tight little corner

[hobbit709]

3. If it hadn't been noticed do you think they'd say that now?

[midnight]

4. K&R

[Angry Dragon]

5. So the Catholic church does not know what they believe if

it comes to them paying out some money
I sure do hope this Catholic hospital does not deny giving women abortions
If they do then they could be arrested for perjury in the case they won

[we can do it]

6. Too late hypocritical assholes

[kestrel91316]

7. You can NOT have it both ways, fundies. A fetus is either a person with full civil rights

or it is not. It isn't one thing when it suits your agenda and another thing when it doesn't.

[Dont call me Shirley]

8. The Craplic church is once again craplicking.

[tk2kewl]

9. So their attorneys will go to confession and get 10 Hail Marys as penance

and all is forgiven

[Ikonoklast]

11. They won't even be asked to.

Attorneys working for the RCC are some of the biggest rat bastards on this planet.

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. "the church's centuries-old stance that life begins at conception"

Uh, just how many centuries ago did the church even know about microscopic sperm and egg getting together in conception to form a microscopic zygote?

[happyslug]

14. Since 1869.

What a lot of people do not realized that until 1869, even the Catholic Church followed what is now call "Roe vs Wade" (Technically Roe vs Wade followed English Common Law of the 1700s, which followed traditional Protestant Teachings on Abortion, which they took without change from the Catholic Church position in the Middle Ages).

Side note: St Augustine developed the Middle Age Church view on Abortion (and his view was derived from both Jewish tradition AND Aristotle) that the key was not conception but quickening, i.e. when the child was believed could live outside the womb. Over time it became a rule that was codified in Roe v Wade,

The reason for the change was from the medical community. In the 1800s Doctors wanted to take over birthing from mid wives, a division in labor that had been is existence since Hippocrates and his Hippocratic oath. Tied in with that division was that abortion was performed by midwives not doctors (And thus why the Hippocratic Oath contained a "No Abortion" clause, for abortion were done by mid wives not doctors).

Thus the medical community started to attack abortion and said only a medical doctor could perform them on the grounds that the previous position that quickening was when a fetus became a child was wrong, for the change from conception to birth was much more gradual and thus the use of quickening was NOT supported by medical reasons, conception was the real difference not quickening.

This pressure from the Medical Community was overwhelming and the Church agreed to change its position on Abortion, but not NOT in the way the medical community want it to do. Instead of giving Doctors the right to decide is a woman should have an abortion, the Church said since quickening is NOT "Bright line" in fetus development, then the line must be drawn at the "bright line" the medical community was pointing out, i.e. Conception. Thus the change in 1869.

[Marrah_G]

12. The Catholic Church has nevered allowed morals to stand in the way of gold

[slackmaster]

13. Yeah well, that's just, ya know, like, their opinion, man.

[Daemonaquila]

15. But they won't be offering to pay up, of course.

Let's not get silly about that "morally wrong" thing.

[mike_c]

16. their money was more important than their principles....

Whenever that happens, it tells us something important about the holder of those principles. They'll throw them under the bus at the drop of a hat, and if they're so willing to abandon their principles so easily, they are effectively unprincipled.

[Scuba]

17. +1,000

[bemildred]

18. Putting pedophiles in positions of trust over children is morally wrong too.

So it's time for the Catholic Church to shut up about morality until it intends to act morally itself.

[Goodells2ndChin]

19. Government...STAY OUT OF OUR LIVES!!!! FOREVER!!!

Oh, except for abortion laws.........and gun laws allowing guns to be legal.....and for anything else we deem appropriate to legalize