Odessa

The Catholic Church and all it's institutions would have us all believe and accept that a fetus is a person with a rights that seem to take precedent over the woman who sustains life for that "unborn person". The Catholic church gets involved in our political process to fight to change our laws, which would impact Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to declare fetuses as persons. At least one Catholic institution has no problem calling a fetus and fetus when they are sued for wrongful death due to negligence of staff. Suddenly fetuses that would have been viable outside their dying mothers womb are just fetuses.

According to the Colorado Independent:

Lori Stodghill was 31-years old, seven-months pregnant with twin boys and feeling sick when she arrived at St. Thomas More hospital...Medical staff tried to resuscitate her but, as became clear only later, a main artery feeding her lungs was clogged and the clog led to a massive heart attack. Stodghill’s obstetrician, Dr. Pelham Staples, who also happened to be the obstetrician on call for emergencies that night, never answered a page. His patient died at the hospital less than an hour after she arrived and her twins died in her womb.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Stodghill’s husband Jeremy, a prison guard, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of himself and the couple’s then-two-year-old daughter Elizabeth. Staples should have made it to the hospital, his lawyers argued, or at least instructed the frantic emergency room staff to perform a caesarian-section. The procedure likely would not have saved the mother, a testifying expert said, but it may have saved the twins.

Rather than agree that the twins were "unborn persons", as the Catholic church would like to jam down everyone's throat, attorney's for the hospital and it's parent organization countered:

Catholic Health’s lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head. Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and state laws that fail to protect “unborn persons,” and Catholic Health’s lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering anti-abortion legal arguments. Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.

The Catholic Church loves to set itself above the law. They try to tell Catholic and non-Catholic how they should conduct their lives. However, when push comes to shove, they retreat to and use those very same laws they claim to abhor.

Personally, I agree that the 7 month fetuses were not "persons". That fact does not remove the hospital's and doctor's negligence in this case. It is still malpractice and the hospital and the doctor need to be held accountable. However, my views are not Catholic views. (I could get into discussions of viable fetus and non-viable fetus being two different things, but I won't)

So much for taking the high road. So much for holding yourself to a higher standard. Catholic Health Initiatives and St. Thomas More Hospital, you are a pile of hypocritical dung.