WWJD? Doctrine Trumps Common Sense for the Archdiocese of Phoenix.

I've been a patient at St. Joseph's hospital.  It is without a doubt, the best hospital in Phoenix.  It was founded by the Sisters of Mercy more than 100 years ago. The late Pope John Paul chose St. Joe's as a place to say Mass when he made his only visit to Phoenix about twenty years ago.

Today, St. Joseph's Hospital was stripped of its "Catholic" status by Bishop Thomas Ohlmstead. The declaration will have no practical effects on health care at the hospital, although the bishop will not allow Mass to be said there anymore. He said donors might want to consider St. Joseph's status before giving to the hospital.

At a morning press conference, the bishop said Catholic Healthcare West, parent company of the hospital, had chosen not to comply with Catholic "ethical and religious directives governing health care."

I didn't know the Roman Catholic Church had a Medical Division.  Did you? Please read on.

At the root of the decision is a violation of the Catholic directives which prohibit abortion in all circumstances.  Period.  There are NO circumstances in which this could ever be questioned.  But in a recent case, the medical staff and administration at St. Joe's, went againt the directive.

The case in question involved a seriously ill mother of four, suffering from acute pulmonary hypertension. She was 11 weeks pregnant at the time of the surgery. The pregnancy put such additional stress on her heart, that hospital officials and doctors believed she was near death.
The mother was going to die, and of course if she died, her fetus would die, too.  The fetus would not live on its own at 11 weeks.  So, the medical staff and the hospital administration decided to terminate the pregnancy and save the mother.
They argued that the procedure was not an abortion under the Catholic directive that says fetuses may be destroyed as a secondary effect of another surgery, such as removal of a cancerous uterus. The bishop disagreed, and said that those he consulted locally and nationally agreed with him.  "We cannot take the life of an innocent human being," he said.

Asked whether saving one life was better than losing two, he said the issue was that rather than trying to save two lives, doctors "took" one of them.
"There is no way to rationalize this," he said. "It would have been best to try to save them both."

 The administrators at St. Joe's took issue with that characterization.
"Our medical staff did try to save both lives. We will always try to save both lives.  In this case it was impossible. Rather than let both the mother and the baby die. We saved the only life we could."

At the time, and prior to terminating the pregnancy, doctors consulted with Sister Margaret McBride, a member of the hospital's ethics committee, and an Administrative Vice President at the hospital.  Subsequently, Bishop Ohlmstead condemned the surgery as an abortion.  As a result, Sister McBride has since been EXCOMMUNICATED from the church for her decision.  She remains on the staff at St. Joe's ... as a nun.

Solid medical decisions saved a life.  Catholic doctrine would have saved none.  And Sister McBride, who has dedicated her entire life to God and saving lives at St. Joeseph's has been stripped of her right to call herself a Catholic.

Linda Hunt, president of St. Joseph's, said the hospital now would become a "community hospital living in the Catholic tradition.  We are very sad we have reached this point," she said. "But our physicians felt we could not say we would never do the same thing again."

Are hospitals in the business of saving lives or following religious doctrine?

I will most likely be in the hospital again at some point, and when I am, I want to know that the doctors are making the best medical decisions possible.  I want to know that I, or a member of my family, or a friend,  or YOU will not die because of some antiquated rule or doctrine that has no place in modern medicine. 

What Would Jesus Do?