Yay, religion.

[denny]

I was just reading back in a friend's journal and I found a link to this story, which she posted 31st August, while I was AFK due to computer woes etc:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1861424,00.html

"A Vatican official has said the Catholic church will excommunicate a medical team who performed Colombia's first legal abortion on an 11-year-old girl, who was eight weeks pregnant after being raped by her stepfather."

Words fail me.

Comments

[pooloftrees.livejournal.com]

Definitely a WTF???? situation - I agree - there are no words for this...

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

stupid religion.
Lets just hope that the medical people don't give a damn about being excommunicated!

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

It's a very religious country, so I guess there's a fair chance that they are religious people even though their medical conscience outweighs it.

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

:/

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

At the risk of waving a plastic sword: isn't getting kicked out of the club the risk you run when you break the rules of the club - even if they're stupid rules. It's not like this is a borderline thing, I don't think any of the medics can credibly claim they didn't know that the Roman Catholic Church was against abortion. It's also not like the cardinal is actually doing anything to stop the girl getting an abortion.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's the stupidity of the rules that I have a problem with.

Also, at a guess, the inconsistency in enforcement of them. I don't recall reading about the church excommunicating any surgeons in the UK or USA - they've specifically chosen to make the gesture in a country where it's more likely that it will upset the people that they're doing it to.

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

At a guess, Catholic doctors in the UK and the US won't perform abortions (certainly there are doctors in the UK who will refuse to perform one on ethical groups). Which makes sense - the "barrier to entry" is a lot higher in the UK and the US, so to label yourself a Catholic, you'd have to firmly believe in most (all?) of the tenets of the faith.

If you know of evidence to the contrary, of course, your point is well-taken.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

My impression of even quite dedicated church-goers in the UK has been that they seem to pick and choose the bits of their religion that suit them, and ignore or rationalise their non-compliance with the rest. Not that this is specific to Catholicism, but it certainly seems to apply there as well as anywhere else.

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

Hmm, my impression is that they tend to remember the oft-repeated bits (like Lev. 20:13), but forget the seldom-repeated bits (like Lev. 11:10-12).

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

A second thought based on the last point I made above - excommunicating the surgeons could be seen as an attempt to deter future similar operations by other surgeons.

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

This is true, of course, and is undoubtedly some of the motivation of the announcement. (It would have to be, really, since His Eminence believes that the surgeons are going to hell unless they repent, and it's his job to stop that.)

However, assuming that you're saying that he shouldn't do that, which of course you haven't (so I'm perhaps arguing against a point you haven't made, in which case forgive me) - don't the organisers of a club have the right to make any rules, however stupid the rules are, and remind the members of the club about the rules as often as they want? As long as they aren't breaking the law in the enforcement of the rules, I don't think that I'd be comfortable denying them the right to, even if I felt the rules were stupid.

I'd be perfectly happy talking to the members of the club about how stupid their rules were, obviously. :)

[barakta]

As I understand it from reading the article, the doctors were initially reluctant to carry out the abortion, but were compelled to do so by the high court when the girl's case fitted the law change's criteria...

If the doctors had refused, there is a chance they'd have been at risk of losing their jobs - possibly worthwhile in the catholic church's eyes.

I agree with the sentiment that the Catholic Church should excommunicate rapists and child abusers for life if they are going to excommunicate the abused for having abortions.

[antihope.livejournal.com]

At age 11, there's probably a high chance she (and the fetus) wouldn't have survived a full term.

Glad I wasn't brought up to give a damn what the Catholic church thinks.

=)