Religion and Ethics: Impossible Choices

The Religion and Ethics program from PBS on episode 833 and aired on April 2005, addressed the issue of abortion among religious women. Leslie is from Virginia and Mary Jo is from New Jersey and both women were practicing Presbyterians who were faced with this difficult choice. They both were pregnant with babies that had major defects and the women were faced with the task of deciding whether to terminate the pregnancy or give birth to the baby. Both women were confronted with moral and ethical arguments for and against their decisions and both faced an internal battle – their faith, love and beliefs all questioned.

            For Leslie, the doctor said the baby had heart defects and for Mary Jo, the baby had no nose, no eyelids, and a hole in his head and feet that were turned in. For both women, the doctors suggest abortion was an option and it was not too late. Leslie, after numerous internal battles, made the decision to abort her child she named Clara and Mary Jo held steadfast to her faith and beliefs and did not abort the child. Her son, Gary, is now close to six and a half (in 2008, at the time of the program recording, he was three and a half) but lives a painful life. There are numerous philosophies to judge what the women did. In the Catholic social teachings, there are certain principles we use to judge whether something is good or not. In this case, the principles that were involved were of life, love and human dignity. Catholics and majority of Christians maintain that life is given by God and it is a gift. Mary Jo stated that in the film by saying she had received a “wonderful gift from God” and when asked about abortion, she said “when somebody gives you a gift, you don’t reject it.” She in right in the sense that Christian teachings places obligation upon individuals and the faith community to protect human lives and to maintain human life – as long as it is not using extraordinary means. What is extraordinary means? It means if I have to sell my house and all that I own to get enough money to simply keep my son on a ventilator, I do not have the moral obligation to do so. However, we still have an obligation to do what we can to preserve life. In this case, Mary Jo sincerely believed she did the right thing and that she was not pursuing any extraordinary means. She wanted the child and her husband was in agreement – he questioned what exactly is the “standard of life?” He said “He’s alive. He has life. Who am I to sit here and say that quality of life is not up to some sort of speed?”