Arizona Bishop Olmsted - "First Do No Harm"

http://ncronline.org/news/ethicists-fault-bishop%E2%80%99s-action-phoenix-abortion-case

I'm a fan of reading The National Catholic Reporter.

This week's lead story is an objective report about how Germain Trisez, who teaches Christian ethics at Mount St. Mary College and Seminary in Emmetsburg, Maryland, is challenging the ethics of a horrible decision made by Arizona Bishop Thomas Olmsted to excommunicate Mercy Sister Margaret Mary McBride, because she supported a critical decision to allow an abortion for a woman whose life was in imminent peril from complications caused by an 11 week fetus. Trisez makes several points in the article to contradict Bishop Olmsted's ruling. Essentially, "intent" of the decision to permit the abortion is not thoroughly vetted in Bishop Olmsted's act.

Above is the link to the on-line National Catholic Reporter story.

Bishop Olmsted should pay attention to the words in the physicians Hippocratic Oath - "First Do No Harm". Bishop Olmsted's precipitous decision to excommunicate Sister McBride has caused harm to many living people.

Obviously, everyone who served on the hospital's ethics board and supported the life saving decision to abort the 11 week fetus has been harmed by the Bishop's precipitous decision. Ethics committee members must be just as responsible for saving the pregnant woman's life as is Sister McBride.

Nonetheless, if committee members were Roman Catholic, they were apparently spared the stigma of excommunication. Sister McBride is harmed because she supported saving the life of a 27 year old woman who is reported to be the mother of 4 other children. Of course, it goes without saying, the young mother was harmed because she quite likely feels a sense of shame for receiving an abortion which has now caused emotional pain on her family and brought harm to those who saved her life.

Bishop Olmsted is not God. Does he need to be reminded of this obvious fact?

Let's pray for Sister McBride. Moreover, let's support the revocation of Sister's unethical excommunication from the church. Sister McBride bravely participated in a life saving decision to protect four young children from growing up without a mother due to complications of an 11 week pregnancy. Bishop Olmsted, I am a Roman Catholic nurse who would have made the same decision as Sister McBride.