This Is Fucking Disgusting.

[nessers]

Not graphic, just morally repugnant: nine-year-old rape victim pregnant with twins receives a medically-advised abortion. Excommunications ahoy!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7926694.stm

Comments

[cheyinka]

You know, my first reaction was that the bishop was doing a good thing by saying that it didn't apply to the victim - because by canon law, anyone who knowingly and willingly has an abortion, and anyone who is knowingly and willingly involved, is excommunicated without any legal action required. It would be true even if the bishop never heard about it, and if he hadn't said anything, it's possible that her parish priest would have said she was excommunicated when he found out (not because he can make that decision, but because that's what the law says), or that she would have been told that in later life.
But, of course, since he's made any statement at all that is not supportive of the decision, he's the bad guy.

[nessers]

I just don't think Jesus would have wanted a nine-year-old girl to endanger her life carrying to term two babies that probably wouldn't have lived anyway because she got raped by a sick man. I thought Christianity was supposed to be about helping each other and teaching each other to love through God. I very much doubt Jesus would have excommunicated anyone.

Especially not these people, protecting a little girl who's already been through so much.

[cheyinka]

I don't know what Jesus wants in this situation. Clearly it is bad that a nine-year-old would have to endanger her life to carry a pregnancy to term because an evil man raped her - but clearly, also, it is bad to deliberately kill an innocent, even an innocent unlikely to live much longer, in order to save another.

From a legal perspective it's the hard case of all hard cases - the mother's life is in peril due to rape that is also child abuse. If the bishop had been lenient and declared that the doctors involved were not excommunicated, I don't know that I would have thought it the best decision, but it would certainly have been an understandable one. I can also understand feeling the need to restate what current church law is on the matter, though. And since I believe that the bishops are the successors to the apostles, and that Jesus gave the apostles the ability to bind and loose, I do think that Jesus approves of excommunication in general, if not in this case.

[nessers]

Can you name me one time, one instance, in which Jesus said, "No. You're no longer allowed to follow me and what I teach with the rest of my followers"?

my opinion precedes me

[chaosgoose]

i really just don't follow how a cluster of cells is deemed 'innocent'