(no subject)

[rivka]

Sometime soon, I'm going to post something cheerful. Not this time.

Through riarambles' journal, I've been following the story of a nine-year-old Nicaraguan girl who was raped by an adult man. She became pregnant, and was also infected with two STDs which were left untreated because of potential harm to the fetus, while the government tried to decide whether she should be permitted to have an abortion. The Catholic Church in Nicaragua urged that the child - who is young enough that when she was asked whether she wanted to have a baby she talked about not wanting to share her toys with another child - be forced to continue her pregnancy.

The governmental medical board assigned to review the case ruled that the child was in as much medical danger from an abortion as she would be if she carried to term. Doctors volunteered to do the procedure even with this ambiguous level of legal support (they're now being threatened with prosecution), and she tolerated the procedure well. She's now being treated for her infections. She and her family are on the road to healing...

Except that her parents, her physicians, and all of their supporters have been promptly excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Or, as a church spokesman, guided by a God of love and mercy, prefers to say, they excommunicated themselves.

If you are Catholic, you have the opportunity to volunteer to share in the sentence of excommunication by declaring yourself to be one of the child's supporters. As for myself, I'll be praying that healing and peace be granted to the child and her family - and that a spirit of compassion be granted to the church officials standing against them.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Of course, by the logic that the Nicaraguan cardinal proclaimed, any of us who so much as question his decision are excommunicate ipso facto. Given that I've been going to a schismatic United Catholic Church, I've already qualified.

None of which ammounts to a hill of beans.

I do not recognize the Bishop of Rome's authority in this matter, nor do I recognize the authority of the archbishop of Managua. I'm sure they are both holy men (especially the Bishop of Rome) but they're in over their heads and struggling with issues they haven't the training or the temprament to deal with. The sad truth is that by pursuing their draconian policies they excommunicate themselves from the vast body of the Church, worldwide, as people of good conscience everywhere become ever more disillusioned with their errant teachings.

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting those links to reports in English. I wasn't been able to find any when I looked last week.

A private citizen has opened a suit against someone (either the doctors or the parents) in the case. The family has been offered asylum in Spain and Cuba, and perhaps other countries as well. The man who was accused of the rape was arrested, but has now been set free. That's the latest news, as far as I know.

Aiee!

[ororo.livejournal.com]

sending good thoughts to the girl and her family.

and glad I left the Catholic church.

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

And people wonder why I don't have much use for organized religion ... God(s), that's scary.

[melebeth]

who is young enough that when she was asked whether she wanted to have a baby she talked about not wanting to share her toys with another child

This, and the linked article, made me cry.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I thought about whether to respond to this or not. Frankly, the whole story is so sick and sad, and horrible, that I don't have anything useful or constructive to say. This kid doesn't even KNOW what she's been through. I mean, what can one say to that? :(

I could give a rats' ass about what the Catholic Church has to say about this and fail to see why the family or the doctors and supporters should care either - in this statement they have revealed themselves to value dogma more than people. Given that they no longer have the secular power to burn at the stake, let 'em take their beliefs and shove them (I know that's easy for me to say, and might not be such an easy attitude for someone who has been abruptly dropped by a religion they took comfort in, but there it is).

That her doctors could be legally prosecuted is what I find far more disturbing. I completely fail to see how Nicaragua could see this as a crime.

[redbird]

Have they excommunicated the man who raped her, or would that make too much sense?

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Okay, before I reply to this, let me say very clearly that I think the Church's stance on this is Very Wrong, and I admire the doctors who were willing to risk possible criminal sanctions and excommunication to carry out the procedure. However, I feel I have to point out that they have revealed themselves to value dogma more than people only works as a statement for people who accept the view - as you presumably do - that the foetus is not a person. The bishop might think that you are putting your dogma (the belief that the foetus is not a person) over people (the foetus, which he does consider to be a person).

I personally also think of the foetus as a person (I have no particular argument for that, it just fits best with my own intuition, particularly during my own pregnancies), so I think of the problem in terms of conflicting rights, and my beliefs about how such conflicts should be resolved say that the girl's rights take priority.

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

Abortion is only legal in Nicaragua in cases where the mother's life is in danger, or when the fetus is malformed. In order for a therapeutic abortion (as they call it) to be legal, a team of 3 doctors has to evaluate the patient, and if they give the go-ahead, the woman's closest relative (husband or guardian) has to OK the abortion as well.

In this case, the team of doctors chose to be wishy washy. Their official decision was that either course of action would endanger the mother's life, so the decision was up to the parents. The parents went ahead with the abortion.

However, the church has so much influence in the government that it has pressured the Ministry of the Family (in charge of child protection) and the Ministry of Health to go after the parents and the doctors who performed the abortion. The legal system is such that a private citizen can go to the government and allege that a law was broken, and require the government to investigate. So, a few days ago, a private citizen did just that. What's not clear (or hasn't been released) so far is who is being accused of wrongdoing--the parents, the doctors, or both. In any case, the government has no choice but to investigate the case, although it's really quite clear that the abortion was performed legally.

Several women's groups have, in their turn, opened cases against the Health Minister and the Minister of the Family, alleging that they allowed their personal religious beliefs to interfere with their duties as representatives of the government.

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

Heh. They ought to, and several women's groups are calling for him to be excommunicated. He's still in Costa Rica, but has been released from jail on a technicality. They're saying that he doesn't have the same STDs that the girl got as a result of the rape. Of course, they've been trying to hang the rape on the girl's father or stepfather ever since the story broke.
It's nothing if not a morass of confusion and idiocy.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

You did assume right - I do not view fetuses as people. Perhaps a clearer statement would be to say that the Catholic officials in this case have revealed themselves to value Catholic dogma over the emotional/spiritual needs of their flock - I think it WOULD be fair to say that a 9 year old girl and her parents stands a better chance of having a religious faith than a fetus, and that their church has let them down, to say the least.

I do agree that the doctors were quite brave to face criminal sanctions to carry out the girl's abortion, but I find it hard to fear being excommunicated. But as I said before - the Catholic Church can't send the Inquisition after you anymore, and as I am not deeply religious, being kicked out of a religion doesn't present much of a dilemma for me.

As I have said before though I cannot imagine what this poor family is going through.