If a fetus is going to kill you, are you justified in using lethal means (if necessay) to stay alive?

Question

If carrying a pregnancy to term is GUARANTEED to kill you, are you justified in terminating the pregnancy in order to save your own life?

Desi Dani, no doctor ever determined that I was "high risk" and then I almost died from pre-eclampsia. They don't and can't always spot these things, unfortunately.

Answer 1

Absolutely. If you were my wife, I would beg you to end the pregnancy.

Answer 2

Absolutely. I also believe if the pregnancy is a *threat* to the mother's life (as in, MIGHT kill the mother), she is more than justified in aborting.

EDIT: DesiDani -- no, doctors do not always know if you're going to be high risk. Things can change very, very quickly, even early on.

As another poster said, I'm really amazed at the brutality and coldness this question has brought out of people. Yikes...

Answer 3

Yes of course if there is medical evidence that a pregnancy will endanger your life it should be terminated. Of course there is no case where a pregnancy is guaranteed to kill you. So the decision would have to be up to the pregnant person as to whether to terminate. On the other hand if you are only terminating a pregnancy as a means of birth control it is cold blooded murder.
Good Luck Betty B.

Answer 4

If the baby stands a chance of living, then I'm going to fight to keep us both alive. Oh and I am talking from personal experience. I spent over three months in bed and in the hospital to give my son and I a chance and it was worth everything I went through. But that's me. I can understand a woman getting an abortion under these circumstances.

I cannot understand abortion as birth control.

God Bless.

Answer 5

Of course, unless there's another person able and willing to take on the pregnancy for you. If someone else is able to do so, and comes forward claiming to want to do so, then that is something that you should consider.

Edit: In short, yes, you are justified in most cases. But as I said in your earlier question, moral actions are relative. Context and situation always determine what is right and wrong.

Answer 6

Why would you allow yourself to get pregnant if giving birth would jeopardize your health in the first place? Sounds pretty stupid to me. If a doctor tells you that having a baby will be dangerous to you, shouldn't you sterilize yourself or at the least go on birth control. Even now doctors can tell if you are going to have a high risk pregnancy.

For people who claim to be so smart, self responsibility goes out the door at times.

Edit:

Well Wargames take a look at this wikipedia link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy#Medical_disorders_in_pregnancy

So with proper medical care and intervention a pregnancy can be saved and the mother will be safe. Unless of course you don't trust in science and your doctors.

Answer 7

I'm not sure "guaranteed" is necessary. Most people acknowledge an exception "to save the life of the mother."

Answer 8

There are no guarantees in life. But if it looks bad for the mother, it's her choice whether or not she wants to take the risk. It's her life and her body.

Answer 9

Of course. The common example of this is an ectopic pregnancy (strictly an embryo, not a fetus).

A fetus or an embryo are not a human being. Having the potential to develop into a human being is not the same thing as being one. I am a potential corpse. I'd prefer not to be treated as an actual one until I achieve that state.

Answer 10

you are a human being - a fetus is a human fetus - and does not think, have conscious, or feel pain. You are justified in using abortion - It is justified even if there is a small chance it would kill you.

Answer 11

I think even Christian doctors and die hard pro-lifers would accept an exception. I can't imagine anyone forcing the mother to die to save the fetus.


Once the baby is "out" then it's a different story. But any doctor, religious or not, who makes the decision to perform surgery that will certainly kill the mother in order to save the child, isn't a good doctor -- if that mother could live otherwise that is. THAT would be a sin.