The Catholic Hospital that did

Did a terrible thing to the Church's number one issue that is.  Right now, the Church's stalwart defense of all things life is its defining mission.  Moving toward pacifism,  banning the death penalty, rejecting abortion, contraception, euthanasia - all of these come down to the Church's modern emphasis on human life above all things.  I mean, there are other things the Church will haggle over, or reach across the aisle about, like God, the Bible, Salvation, Heaven and Hell. But increasingly, when it comes to life, that is to be protected above all things, no matter what the cost.  No debate.  No discussion.

So naturally, it's made the news that the lawyers of a Catholic Hospital in Colorado are defending against wrongful death claim, partly by insisting that two babies who died at 28 weeks gestation weren't really people.  Sigh.  I know, I know.  I'm not a lawyer.  There are probably reams of legal mumbo-jumbo that would explain everything.  But in the end, this is a public relations nightmare for the Church.  Since I know a little bit about wrongful death claims, I can say the Church might be able to direct its lawyers to fight the claim, and then agree to settle both for the mother and the babies if found responsible.  Or something.

But to take some nuanced, legalized technicality regarding the definition of person-hood and say they're running with it stinks to high heaven   I don't care what the reason.  I don't care if Colorado law says otherwise.  This is human life we're talking about, and right now, the pro-choice and pro-just about anything else crowd is having fun with the hypocrisy 101 charges.  Saying 'oh well, the state says it's not life, and we'll just have to benefit from it this time' is about as convincing as you probably imagine.

The hospital has every right to demand equal protection under the law. It’s not the hospital’s fault that the secular legal system doesn’t recognise [sic] the fetus as a person.

Especially nauseating was seeing Catholics rushing to defend the Hospital by, among other things, accusing the grieving family of being a bunch of money grabbers exploiting their dead unborn babies for loot.  Thankfully it looks like those posts have been removed.  We don't need another throwback to the glory days when people accusing the Church of abuse were the ones taken out to the stake. Still, at least some have gotten it right:

The twins either died due to negligence or they didn’t. IMO, that is the ONLY legal question the hospital should be willing to argue. If death resulted from malpractice, they need to pay up. It is the only moral thing to do. We all know that what is legal is very often immoral, so they must not hide behind Justice’s skirts.

I hope and pray that in the coming weeks, if this story sticks around, Catholics and the Catholic Church won't set itself up for another abuse-scale scandal about the one issue it has hung its hat on for the last 50 years.