Organized Religion Discussion Thread

[Twin-Skies]

Nun demoted for deciding to perform life-saving abortion on pregnant mother
http://freethinker.co.uk/2010/05/16/nun-...mans-life/

A CATHOLIC nun and long-time administrator at St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix has been demoted because she had been part of a team that decided to end the pregnancy of a critically ill patient.

St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center

The decision drew a sharp rebuke from Bishop Thomas J Olmsted, head of the Phoenix Diocese, who indicated that the nun – Sister Margaret McBride, the highest-ranking member of the Sisters of Mercy at the hospital – was “automatically excommunicated” because of the action.

Neither the hospital nor the bishop’s office would address whether the bishop had a direct role in her demotion. He does not have control of the hospital as a business but is the voice of moral authority over any Catholic institution operating in the diocese.

The actions involving the McBride followed a last-minute, life-or-death drama in late 2009. The patient had a rare and often fatal condition in which a pregnancy can cause the death of the mother.

McBride, who had been vice president of mission integration at the hospital, was on call as a member of the hospital’s ethics committee when the surgery took place, hospital officials said. She was part of a group of people, including the patient and doctors, who decided upon the course of action.