CHICAGO/TORONTO, September 24, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The issue of early inducement of labour for children with ‘anomalies incompatible with life’ has created a stir in the world of online pro-life reporting.
On September 15th, LifeSiteNews.com ran a story, based on an editorial by Jill Stanek, about the labour inducement practice followed by at least two Catholic hospital systems in the United States. Stanek quoted Fr. John O’Callaghan, a member of the Loyola hospital ethics committee, saying that the procedure was done “to ward off the physical complications of bringing to term a child who is not going to live anyway.” The quote cam from an interview from an interview Catholic journalist Tom Szyszkiewicz conducted with Fr. O’Callaghan. Syszkiewicz was the first to point out that the Catholic hospitals were performing the controversial procedure. The procedure has been called the moral equivalent of an abortion by pro-life leaders and is considered highly questionable by even non-Catholic ethicists. The information that Catholic hospitals were following this practice has been picked up by various Catholic commentators on weblogs and online news sites.
LifeSiteNews.com has followed up its initial Sept.15 story on this issue with further investigation and an interview with prominent Canadian moral theologian Fr. Tom Lynch. Today’s Special Report explores the issue in more depth and attempts to clarify serious concerns about the Hospitals’ deadly birth induction procedure for certain distressed unborn children. See the complete Special Report at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/040924a.html USCCB Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services: https://www.usccb.org/bishops/directives.htm LifeSiteNews.com September 15 story https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04091502.html ph