The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix stripped a major hospital of its affiliation with the church Tuesday because of a surgery that ended a woman's pregnancy to save her life.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted called the 2009 procedure an abortion and said St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center — recognized internationally for its neurology and neurosurgery practices — violated ethical and religious directives of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld," Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. "The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph's medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed."
Linda Hunt, president of St. Joseph's, said doctors performed a necessary procedure on a patient who was getting worse by the minute and was in imminent danger of death.
"If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case," Hunt said. "Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save."
St. Joseph's does not receive direct funding from the church, but in addition to losing its Catholic endorsement, the 697-bed hospital will no longer be able to celebrate Mass and must remove the Blessed Sacrament from its chapel.
Hunt said the hospital will comply with Olmsted's decision but it will continue to operate under Catholic guidelines.
"We will continue in the Catholic heritage through words and deeds," she said. "We have removed the Blessed Sacrament from our tabernacle, we will have no Masses, but priests will see patients. We are still a hospital."
The woman who underwent the procedure is in her 20s and had a history of abnormally high blood pressure when she learned of her pregnancy. After she was admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms, doctors determined her risk of death was nearly 100 percent.
The hospital's ethics team concluded the pregnancy could be ended under the church's ethical directives because "the goal was not to end the pregnancy but save the mother's life," the hospital said.
Olmsted's announcement came after months of talks between the Diocese, the hospital and the hospital's parent company, Catholic Healthcare West.
Dr. Charles Alfano, chief medical officer at the hospital and an obstetrician there, said Olmsted was asking the impossible from the hospital.
"Specifically the fact that he requested we admit the procedure performed was an abortion and that it was a violation of the ethical and religious directives and that we would not perform such a procedure in the future," he said. "We could not agree to that. We acted appropriately."
Olmsted said the talks eroded his confidence about St. Joseph's and Catholic Healthcare West's commitment to the church's ethical and religious directives. "They have not addressed in an adequate manner the scandal caused by the abortion," he said.
He said he recently learned that Catholic Healthcare West also is responsible for contraceptive counseling, voluntary sterilization, and other practices he said violate the ethical and religious directives.
Hunt, who also is the service area president of Catholic Healthcare West of Arizona, said the hospital had to offer such services under Arizona's Medicaid program, but did so through a third party.
St. Joseph's is home to the Barrow Neurological Institute, where musician Bret Michaels was treated after he suffered a brain hemorrhage in April. The institute recently established the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.
justold44 posted at 11:57 am on Tue, Dec 21, 2010.
My question is: Does the Catholic church give any money to the Hospital? If not, then who cares if they take their religious statues, crosses and trinkets out of the Hospital.
NO Church should have the right to tell a Hospital what type of treatment a person can or cannot have!!
don911 posted at 12:42 pm on Tue, Dec 21, 2010.
This is good news for the hospital. Hospitals receive Federal and State funds and should not be dispensing religion. St Joseph's
should practice good medicine; the Catholic religion precludes
the use of standard medical practices. The Tax exemption granted to the Catholic Church should be revoked as church doctrine is contrary to the laws of the U.S. and Arizona.
Dale Whiting posted at 12:47 pm on Tue, Dec 21, 2010.
justold44,
Interesting handle. Care to explain it?
Actually any institution that sponsors a hospital has a right to withdraw that sponsorship for any reason, good or bad [as viewed by the sponsoring institution]. Chances are St. Joe's does not cover all of its expenses, but it will be interesting to learn whether or not it does. If St. Joe's depends upon charity, either directly from the Church or indirectly from others whose support depends upon its compliance with Catholic standards, then St. Joe's may have to change policy to survive or find new sponsorship. Banner may be available.
But where the Church opposes abortion, it cannot continue its sponsorship of St. Joe's and be true to its beliefs, can it. Chances are the other valley Catholic Healthcare West facilities face this same problem but St. Joe's was the only one which pushed the envelope. Other the years, St. Joe's has been the pre-eminent insitution in the valley dedicated to healthcare. No one wants to see that change. All of my contact with St. Joe's has been rewarding.
Now moving on to the debate over this policy. Several Christian faiths [but by no means all] oppose abortion. Whether one calls it the "right to life" or "murder," abortions, even those whose legal justification is to save the life of the mother, are not something the sponsoring institution must accept. And for those who observe that the Pope does not speak for all Catholics, be prepared to support [$$$] St. Joe's when the time comes.
"Right to Choose" adherents believe that abortion is not murder, that control of one's own body, especially pending giving birth, is personal and that neither the faith of others nor the government ought to have power over that right. Row v. Wade was a compromise over these two divergent views. Once the fetus become viable outside of the womb, at that time the third trimester, only a need to abort to save the mother's life was justified.
It is interesting to observe that prior to abortions being made illegal about 100 years or so ago, no law on the books classified abortion as murder or even some other sort of felony. During the time abortion was illegal, the justification was to save the life of the mother who sought abortions when abortions were inherantly life risking. Then as abortion procedures were advanced and better medice evolved, they became safe and the justification for prohibition was challenged, eventually in Row v. Wade.
Compromises are seldom accepted by those whose motivations are so personal and so based upon personal values. We in the US pride ourselves on having seperated religion from governing rule. While the Pope does speak for the Catholic Church proper, he does not speak for what is or is not legal.
My own particular faith views abortion as the taking of life without justification, except for saving the mother's life. And that decision is not left up to just the mother and the doctor. Any doctor who routinely performs abortions cannot remain fellowshiped. Arguably whether a fetus is alive has not become a matter of firm doctrine but many assume that it has.
But we all wish St. Joe's the best. It does an immense amount of good in the Valley and it would be a shame if that was to change. If the policy needs to change so that St. Joe's survives, then I hope it changes.