Ginaa, 35 years old, is just divorced from an abusive marriage, and performed sexual activities with
someone else whom she is not married to. She then conceived out-of-marriage; though she had
been hoping to be a mother given the critical risks of conceiving at her age, and also the
traumatic experience of her previous married life. However, her egg is fertilized in the fallopian
tube; as the fertilized egg develops, it will rupture the tube, killing both the mother, Zina, and
the fetus. Evaluate and attempt to resolve the moral dilemma. Is an abortion justified by the
principle of double effect? Explain using Thomistic Ethics, or the ethics of Natural Law to
evaluate and attempt to resolve the ethical dilemma.
1. The goal of the surgery itself must be good or at least morally neutral. In this case, the goal of
the surgery is to remove a pathological organ which presents an imminent threat to the life of
the woman—a good goal. By contrast, the goal of surgical or chemical abortion is simply to kill
the preborn child.
https://www.hli.org/resources/principle-double-effect/
“In the case of extrauterine pregnancy, no intervention is morally licit which constitutes a direct
abortion,” with a direct abortion being, “Every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the
termination of pregnancy before viability” (dirs. 48, 45). The USCCB seems to be condemning any act
made upon a previable fetus directly in which fetal death is the expected outcome, even if, miraculously,
death does not follow.
Thus, addressing even a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy by surgically opening the fallopian tube and
separating the fetus from the mother (salpingostomy) is illicit because such a surgery would constitute a
direct attack on the fetus (Anderson et al. 2011). In contrast, if the entire fallopian tube is removed
(salpingectomy), this is seen as morally licit under the principle of double effect because, “the intention
of the surgeon is directed towards the good effect (removing the damaged tissue to save the mother’s
life) while only tolerating the bad effect (death of the ectopic child). Importantly, the surgeon is
choosing to act on the tube (a part of the mother’s body) rather than directly on the child” (Pacholczyk 2009,
emphasis added).
The current reasoning requires that in administering an operation, treatment, or medication, it must
have the direct purpose of alleviating a serious pathological condition in the mother. However, in the
case of ectopic pregnancy, that pathological condition is the disordered physical union between the
mother and her fetus. It is the continuation of the disordered union that gravely threatens the life of the
mother. The separation of the mother from her embryo or fetus is indeed “the means by which” the
pathology is actually addressed. The death of the fetus is an indirect result of the separation.
Thus, in effecting the separation of the mother and the fetus, the least damaging means of performing
the separation is the best option, out of respect for the fetal corpse and out of a desire to preserve the
future fertility of the mother by protecting the function of her fallopian tube.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6161225/#:~:text=Under%20the%20rule%20of
%20double,despite%20this%20consequence%20being%20foreseen.&text=Rather%2C%20the%20uterus
%20is%20removed%20because%20it%20harbors%20cancerous%20cells.
Abortion Ethics: Natural Law
vs. Naturalism
Abortion is such an immoral act -- evil by its very nature (intrinsically evil), since it directly attacks the
most fundamental human right. Nor can such an act be justified by any utilitarian purpose, however
good, since natural law forbids using an intrinsically evil means to attain a good end.
For example, the principle not to take innocent human life is not viewed as protective of all human
organisms. Rather, criteria as to who merits the “right-to-life-conferring” designation of a “person” are
considered and applied only as “warranted.”
This means that the human zygote is not considered a person because it lacks certain “personhood”
properties, including sentience, self-consciousness, rationality, creativity, socialization, and so forth.
Depending upon criteria selected, different stages of fetal development may or may not be granted
full human status, with birth being an important event for both ethical and legal purposes.
https://strangenotions.com/abortion-ethics-natural-law-vs-naturalism/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1179/002436309803889106
