Monday, January 23, 2012

Faith & Ectopic pregnancy

I am confused about my surgery decision, so I am reading this:
"Ectopic for Discussion: A Catholic Approach to Tubal Pregnancies" .
I appreciate these Catholic moralists and theologians discussions of tough questions of faith. Just having to think this way goes against my simple black and white nature; however, in this case, it is helpful to think through my decision. The Catholics use this moral reasoning:

When a choice will likely bring about both an intended desirable effect and also an unintended, undesirable effect, the principle of double effect can be applied to evaluate the morality of the choice. The chosen act is morally licit when (a) the action itself is good, (b) the intended effect is good, and (c) the unintended, evil effect is not greater in proportion to the good effect.

Applied to my case it is a thin argument to me. Since my tube was removed, it would fall under the category of the double effect (good to remove damaged tube, good to save mom, life of child lost is bad but child's life is equal but not greater to mom), but the reason the doctor told me for removal was that it was so delicate as to make a repair difficult and a future ectopic pregnancy sure; not like the article says,"Instead, they see the tissue of the tube where the embryo is attached as compromised or infected." Re: the drug treatment or direct removal of child from tube, the double effect wd not apply because the direct attack on the fetus would be considered not good.

Another thought I am pondering is the fact that I don't know if the child was alive or dead for sure. I only know that my hormone levels showed pregnancy, and there was a 3cm egg sack visible from the ultrasound. Nick brought it up tonight when he and Lisette visited and the article addresses that too:
"There are two circumstances that make the use of any of these treatments morally acceptable. The first occurs when an ectopic pregnancy has been diagnosed, but no signs of life exist. The morality of treatment for ectopic pregnancies concerns the absolute value of human life. Conversely, there is no such moral consideration if the embryo has succumbed—there is no taking of human life (assuming a reasonable effort has been made to detect life)."
The final phrase being the key one in our case. We could have asked more questions, demanded some answers...to see if we could know. We didn't... we may or may not find out more info from the lab report. The only thing I know is that when they took the photos, blood was pooling around the fallopian tube. Was that an early indication of rupture? At any rate, I don't know, for sure.

3 comments:

Heather G said...

I know it's an opinion that you gave to form on your own, but I don't think many spiritual thinkers would disagree with decision you were forced into making.

Holly said...

I wish it WAS actually forced, but we had to decide, sign on the dotted line, yes i agree to this procedure...albeit with great pressure...
but I FELT forced into this place of having to choose ...by God...

Mikey said...

This must be so difficult to go through, Holly--I really admire you for asking all of these hard questions to yourself.