Threat of Imminent Death in Pregnancy: A Role for Double-Effect Reasoning

In the Phoenix case, pulmonary hypertension threatened the life of an eleven-week pregnant mother. Removal of the placenta as the organ threatening the mother's life necessarily included extracting the amniotic membranes containing the fetus. The author proposes this argument: the principle of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Magill, Gerard 1951- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage Publ. 2011
In: Theological studies
Year: 2011, Volume: 72, Issue: 4, Pages: 848-878
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:In the Phoenix case, pulmonary hypertension threatened the life of an eleven-week pregnant mother. Removal of the placenta as the organ threatening the mother's life necessarily included extracting the amniotic membranes containing the fetus. The author proposes this argument: the principle of double effect clarifies that causing the death of the fetus (destined to die, whatever transpired) while avoiding a direct physical assault on it constitutes an indirect and unintended (albeit foreseen) side effect, thereby justifying the intervention.
ISSN:2169-1304
Contains:Enthalten in: Theological studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/004056391107200407