Dear Claire:

You have it correct and have said it very well.

On ectopic pregnancy, the medical procedure is not an abortion. You are correct. It is a medical procedure to save the life of the mother in which the death of the baby is NOT intended, but is UNINTENDED result of the medical procedure. This is called the principle of double-effect.

The Catholic Dictionary explains that Double-Effect is...

The principle that says it is morally allowable to perform an act that has at least two effects, one good and one bad. It may be used under the following conditions:

1. the act to be done must be good in itself or at least morally indifferent; by the act to be done is meant the deed itself taken independently of its consequences;

2. the good effect must not be obtained by means of the evil effect; the evil must be only an incidental by-product and not an actual factor in the accomplishment of the good;

3. the evil effect must not be intended for itself but only permitted; all bad will must be excluded form the act;

4. there must be a proportionately grave reason for permitting the evil effect. At least the good and evil effects should be nearly equivalent.

All four conditions must be fulfilled. If any one of them is not satisfied, the act is morally wrong.

An example of the lawful use of the double effect would be the commander of a submarine in wartime who torpedoes an armed merchant vessel of the enemy, although he foresees that several innocent children on board will be killed. All four required conditions are fulfilled: 1. he intends merely to lessen the power of the enemy by destroying an armed merchant ship. He does not wish to kill the innocent children; 2. his action of torpedoing the ship is not evil in itself; 3. the evil effect (the death of the children) is not the cause of the good effect (the lessening of the enemy's strength); 4. there is sufficient reason for permitting the evil effect to follow, and this reason is administering a damaging blow to those who are unjustly attacking his country.

As explained, all four conditions must be met to be able to apply the principle of Double-Effect. Pregnancy by incest or rape fails this 4-prong test.

First let us define abortion. Again from the Catholic Dictionary:

Direct abortion is any destruction of the product of human conception, whether before or after implantation in the womb. A direct abortion is one that is intended either as an end in itself or as a means to an end. As a willful attack on unborn human life, no matter what the motive, direct abortion is always a grave objective evil.

But does the principle of Double-Effect apply in the case of a child conceived by incest or rape? Might that be an exception?

Test #1: Not wanting the baby is not a moral good. Test #1 fails in that instance. It can be argued, however, that Test #1 passes in that it is a moral good to protect the mental health of the woman. Even so, all four tests must pass.

Test #2: The ends never justifies the means. Even if the ends (protection of the mental health of the mother) is a moral good, the means here, abortion, is objectively evil. FAILS.

Test #3: the evil effect of killing the baby is intended. FAILS.

Test #4: There is no proportionately grave reason that overcomes the evil of abortion. FAILS.

Abortion, even in the case of incest and rape fails at least three and usually all four tests and thus can never be permitted. Failing even one test is all that is needed to determine that the act is a moral evil.

Now let us look at the case of ectopic pregnancy.

Test #1: It is a moral good to save the life of the mother. PASS.

Test #2: The act of saving the mother's life is not accomplished by aborting the baby, but by removing the fallopian tube that is causing heavy bleeding and threatening the life of the mother. The death of the baby is a by-product of the need to stop the bleeding. PASS

Test #3: The bad effect (the death of the baby) is not the intention. The intention is to stop the bleeding before the mother dies. The death of the baby is allowed, but not directly intended. PASS

Test #4: There is a proportionately grave reason to perform the surgery for without it the mother will die (and so will the baby). Thus, like trying to rescue two people in a burning building, if one person will die no matter what, one saves the person who has a chance to live. PASS.

Surgery for ectopic pregnancy passes all the tests.

This person who you were talking to needs to apply reason and not emotion on this subject. The Church is UTTERLY clear about all this. There are no gray areas and the teaching has not only Sacred Tradition, but also philosophical, theological, and moral reason and logic to back it up.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary