Diamond, Eugene F.

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 36 | Number 1 Article 20February 1969Who Speaks for the FetusEugene F. DiamondFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationDiamond, Eugene F. (1969) "Who Speaks for the Fetus," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 36 : No. 1 , Article 20.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol36/iss1/20V\fho Speaks for the ·Fetus Eugene F. Diamond, M.D. To speak for the fetus and to be his advocate is an appropriate assignment for a pediatrician. In keeping with the current · modern trend in the relationship between obstetrician and the pediatrician, the obstetrician now recognizes that ~ he is responsible for two patients, the mother and her unborn child. To consider the fetus not to be a separate person but merely a part of the mother has not . been tenable since the sixteenth century when Arantius showed that the maternal and fetal circulations were separate - neither continuous nor contiguous. The genetic material of this separate human embryo is certainly unique, determinative and complete. It is certainly alive since it possesses that hallma* of life -:- the ability to reproduce dying cells. It can be distinguished from any other non-human species. Once implanted, it requires only time and nutrition. Only two possible futures are open to it. It can become a live human being or a dead human fetus. (Dr. Diamond is Chairman, Executive Committee, Department of Pediatrics, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University.) 58 The incidence of abortion~ hospitals to preserve the mo l to preserve the mother's he for psychiatric indications decreased in the past twer: ·1 years. The only _type of abortion .'uch has increased during that tim is the abortion done for the so-ca·; · ~d "fetal indication". The use of this itself a misnomer since o t justify an abortion on the fetal indication since no ofetl '· has ever survived an abortion. The jv .dfication for such an abortion mm · then be either a form of euthanasi ~ to spare the child a life with handi: '. ps or for the purpose of saving the J- .. trents the happenstance of having an abnormal child. There is no evidence to in Jicate that the infant with congenital anomalies would rather not be born since he cannot be consulted and no one reallY represents · him when thr abortion decision is made. There is evidence that handiCapped persons do value life after they are born since the incidence of suicide among handicapped persons is apparently lower than . that of the general population (I). Fetal -indications are more accurately parental indications, then, and are based on a reluctance on the Linacre QuarterlY ··of parents to accept a certain tical risk that an infant will abnormal. Every pregnancy, of carries with it the risk of the an infant witp congenital lt i!tlwuuau,c;:,. · The ·risk is never zero IIJIIerccmt. It must be stated that the risk ·~-nv ...... d in no presently recognized hazard would support a of routine abortion. There is accurate and safe method of the abnormal embryo in during the period when an could be done. Trying to do a B'\'()tVrle during . the first trimester an excessive risk of terminating pregnancy or producing fetal ( 4). Recognizing chromosomal not conclusive since the rare disorders now recognized prinCipally sex-linked recessives. then are the risks involved and justify the consideration of IIIU13tllOn of. the life of the fetus. In situation of maternal rubella the first trimester, modern IDecti,re, virologically controlled indicate that no more than of infants will be at risk (2). a figure of 20% would have to such anomalies as remediable defects, tonal hearing loss and ,auterme growth retardation. When of severe life-blighting anomalies due to German he. is talking about cataracts mental retardation. The risk of an suffering one of these calamities less than 20%. In fact, an year prospective followup of born to mothers contracting measles during the first 16 of pregnancy showed their IIIUIJ!erlce distribution to be norma!' risk of an infant being born any type of congenital anomaly is . ~ess in any non-epidemic year It IS during a rubella epidemic (5). Mayer and Parkman (6) of the Institute of Health have ,1969 already reported on field trials of an apparently potent Rubella vaccine, it is likely that a vaccine will be available before the next rubella epidemic occurs, since-epidemics usually occur every five to seven years. The answer to the rubella dilemma lies in this vaccine and not in therapeutic abortion. The problem of teratogenic drug ingestion would also seem irrelevant in this context. Thalidomide was not on the American Market. It is unlikely that a drug with such a teratogenic capability could pass the progeny · study requirements now made mandatory by the Food and Drug AdJ?inistration. Indeed, progeny . studies on the rat and more recently on the baboon (7) have produced limb bud anomalies in animal fetuses almost indentical to the phocomelia seen in human beings. The Thalidomide tragedy was, in a sense, iatrogenic and, therefore, deserving of our profession's utmost concern and compassion. In keeping with noblest medical . traditions is the work of Dr. Gustav H au berg of the Anna Stift rehabilitation school in Hanover Germany. In thiS institution, a team of orthopedists, social workers, and teachers have been engaged in the developing of abilities of Thalidomide-damaged children so that, despite their heavy handicaps, they will still value life. Mental and psychological development has been normal, in most cases, and higher education potential is attributed to most. Thus even such a poignant situation as the birth of 7 000 phocomelics can have its positive aspect when medical resources are properly mobilized. The best preventative against the recurrence of such a tragedy is the basic reluctance of obstetricians to give any new drugs to pregnant women. 59 ~ ·, .·. . .. It is difficult to formulate a therapeutic principle which would apply to the various situations posed by exposure to drugs or disease. If the principle is that it is better for eight or nine normal babies to die than for one or two abnormal babies to be born, then I must say that I reject this principal as wasteful and unreasonable. It seems to me that this viewpoint derives from a cult of perfection which says that life is not worth living unless it is free of handicaps. That vita is not vita unless it . is La Dolce Vita (8). Experience in working with handicapped children would suggest that human nature frequently rises above its ·. impediments and that, in Shakespeare's words, "Best men are molded out of faults and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad". Certainly the en tire medical profes.sion, not just abortion-law revisionists, has compassion for victims of forcible rape and incest. There is a question, however, as to the true dimensions of this problem. Studies on human fertility would suggest that not too many pregnancies are likely to result from a single act of forcible rape. I am informed, by the local states attorneys office that their staff could not recall a single incident of such a pregnancy in an experience covering about nine years of prosecutions fo11 rape. If such a pregnancy were to occur, there is no scientific evidence that psychological trauma would - be prevented, unaffected, or intensified by compounding the shame of rape with the possible guilt of abortion. In the case of statutory rape, there is likewise a question as to the relevance of therapeutic abortion. Teenage girls who become pregnant are largely a group characterized by social isolation 60 and alienation from their ' 'arents. Frequently, they look forwar , to the birth of the infant as a further 1 on eline ss compensatio and, therefore, do not present tl• mselves for therapeutic abortion consi eration. Incestuous pregnancy is n: less a difficult problem. Ma : 'l such pregnancies . are not recog ,zed or admitted until physically ob ous and beyond the time when abort. n would be possible. Many cases ( alleged incest will fail of recognitic because the victim or her mother v a shrink from the financial ruin in ·)lved in a<;cusing the father or the c .. cial ruin involved in convicting a t •ther. In 1966, there were on·: twelve ·indictments for incest enter: ·, in Cook County __ and only a fracti · · of these involved pregnancies ,. • which therapeutic abortion W< Jd have related under any law. Much is made of the -:ppeal to prevent the birth of a nwanted children. It seems to me th:· there is a confusion involved here wh ch results from the failure to distingm ·.;~ between the unwanted child and th• unwanted pregnancy. In fifteen years of experience with the ["'-•rent-child relationship, I have v.-ry rarely encountered a mother who ~~ :iked to be rid of her child once she lud taken it home from the nursery. I have encountered many mother-5, pregnant with their third or fourth child who undergo a kind of panic which requir~s the sympathetic support of thetr family doctor and their husband. According to Hoerck, 7551; of women who were refused abortion under t~e Swedish system, went on to have thetr babies and were happy with thern. According to Aren and Amark, more of these women have an improvement in their mental adjustment than ~ deterioration of ment al health .. wonder if we really want a situatiOn Linacre QuarterlY that ·in Denmark for . example the principal indications for are 1) the stress syndrome of 2) symptoms of and 3) impending of the uninsurable risks · of practice is that we sometimes to believe in the phantasies of patients. Patients may ascribe qualities to us but I doubt they will approve of our acting out. The notion that a physician be allowed to perform any he chooses within the k of the physician-patient onship js a unique and ecedented request for any [)oes the lawyer ask that law is his specialty, laws should left to his conscience? Does the suggest that his position as an entitles him to decide when should occur in public schools? may know how to do an he does not necessarily know it should be done or if it should · done at all. of abortions in the States are performed on who are married, healthy, and with their husbands. Ninety-five of the fetuses destroyed in abortions would have been born If we accept the Kinsey , 88-95% of abortions are d by technically competent of medicine. What do we seems to me that we have a good in Illinois. When physicians the state were asked, the Illinois Medical Journal, t cases where the present law d to the detriment of the or mental health of the mother by depriving her of a . needed abortion, no such..cases were reported. During the past five years, iri this state, we have had five maternal deaths due · to septic criminal abortion, an average of one a year. This must be close to an irreducible minimum. If the law is changed to allow. for a vast increase in the number of abortions performed, there will be many more lives lost and these will be the lives of unborn children. The mortality is 100% for them. Most states recognize that . the unborn child does have rights under the law. A mother may sue for the support of her unborn child or may hold a defendent liable for injuries sustained by her unborn child as a result of accident or assault. An · unborn child may share in an inheritance or workmen's compensation benefits. A pregnant woman convicted of a capital crime may not be executed until after her baby is born. The Constitution in the Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be · deprived of life without due process of law. It is certainly a matter of pause · for the Medical profession to decide whether two doctors in agreement or even an "Abortion Committee" constitutes due process. It seems ironical that when we have established a National Institute of Child Health which specifically directs its attention to child development from the time of conception and while tens of millions are being spent by various national foundations to improve the lot of the unborn, that we should see in this day a movement for more liberal "fetal indications" for abortion. If you ask me therefore to speak for the fetus, then speak for him I will. I speak for him intact or deformed. I speak for him wanted or unwanted. 61 • • ' i• I , ·· · ' , • ·. ' ... ... > ~ -. :·. : ' ·~ , ;~ I ' ' ' •,,. \ ·. Yes, and I speak for him be he illegitimate or high-born. I am for life and the preservation of life. I believe that any life is of infinite value and that this value is not significantly diminished by physical or mental defect or the circumstances of that life's beginning. I believe th t this regard for the quantity and : Jt the quality of life is a cornersl -ne of Western culture. I believe our ; Jtients are served best by a medic ethic which also holds this principle ·acred. REFERENCES 1. Hellegers, A. E. A Doctor Looks at Abortion. Edward Douglas White Lecture. Georgetown University Law School, 1966. 2. Sever, J. L. et al. Rubella Epidemic 1964: Effect on 6,000 Pregnancies. Am. J. Dis. Child. 110:395, 1965. . 3. Sheridan, M.D. Final Report of a Prospective Study of Children _whose Mothers had Rubella in Early Pregnancy. Brit. Med. J. 2:536, 1964. 4. Macintyre, M.N. _March of Dimes Symposium on Birth Defects. Quoted in Medical World News 8:82, Jan. 27, 1967. 5. Siegel, M. and Greenberg, M. Fetal Death, Prematurity and Malformations after Maternal Rubella. New Eng. J. Med. 262:389, 1960. 6. Mayer, H. M. and Parkman, P.D. Oinical Trial of an Experimental Rubella Virus Vaccine. J. Ped. 69:893, 1966. ' 62 7. Axelrod, L. A. & Hendri Southwest Foundation for and Education. Report -, Medical Tribune 72:3, 1966. 8. Bym, R.M. The Anatomy Abortion Reform. Report 4:21. Augm 1966. 9. Hoerck, cited by Asplund, J ·)iscussion of Swedish Abortion Expel nee. Bull. Sloane Hosp. 11-77, 1965. 10. Aren, T. and Amark, R. Tl· Prognosis of Granted but not Perfb .led Legal Abortions. Acta Psych. -nd Neur. Scandanavian Supplement 9 1955. 11. Hoffmeyer, H. Medical As, -cts of the Danish Legislation on Abortion. Western Reserve Law Revi, w 17:529, 1965. 12. Kinsey, A. C. in Abortion ! .. the United States ed. Cald e r un e, M.S. Hoeber-Harper, New York. New York p. 54. Linacre QuarterlY Address to Canon Law ·society Richard Cardinal Cushing talk of us here tonight are priests of and men dedicated and d to the teaching, to the tation, to the application and implementation of law. We be, by reason of our ministry and calling, respecters of the law. our example of respect and by of our dedicated obedience we and we shall encourage the · community and the People God to observe and to obey the law tiously. The laity become and scandalized when they willful and deliberate violation the law onthe part of those, who, reason of their vocation , should be respecters. · it appears that some and immediate good could achieved by violation . of law, the result is apt to be scandalous disastrous. Disrespect for law by who should have a special '1969 commitment to it, will certainly be the breeding ground of indifference to-law on the part of our people. There is no justification for those among us . who take the law into their own hands, who disobey or violate the law, who create and fashion a law unto themselves, or who consider their ideas and programs and ultimate goals above and beyond the law. Good faith and well-intentioned activity cannot excuse. Impatience to change a law or · procedure - however well-founded - cannot justify its infraction. Strive to change a law that needs changing - by all means - but obey it until it is changed. Be consistent at all times and under all circumstances. We note that our Church structure and our theology and our system of law have been described as formalistic, legalistic , casuistic, and unduly concerned over hair-splitting and intricate _ distinctions. Yet , it is noteworthy that some of those who have thus described our systems are very quick to take refuge in distinctions and legalism, when it appears to favor their position or is helpful in explaining and justifying their point of view. 63 ·~ I :' I ' ' • ..... ·. ~ ' I • •, • 'I I ' • • l• ' ' 

Who Speaks for the Fetus

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 36 | Number 1 Article 7February 1969Who Speaks for the FetusEugene F. DiamondFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationDiamond, Eugene F. (1969) "Who Speaks for the Fetus," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 36 : No. 1 , Article 7.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol36/iss1/7V\fho Speaks for the ·Fetus Eugene F. Diamond, M.D. To speak for the fetus and to be his advocate is an appropriate assignment for a pediatrician. In keeping with the current · modern trend in the relationship between obstetrician and the pediatrician, the obstetrician now recognizes that ~ he is responsible for two patients, the mother and her unborn child. To consider the fetus not to be a separate person but merely a part of the mother has not . been tenable since the sixteenth century when Arantius showed that the maternal and fetal circulations were separate - neither continuous nor contiguous. The genetic material of this separate human embryo is certainly unique, determinative and complete. It is certainly alive since it possesses that hallma* of life -:- the ability to reproduce dying cells. It can be distinguished from any other non-human species. Once implanted, it requires only time and nutrition. Only two possible futures are open to it. It can become a live human being or a dead human fetus. (Dr. Diamond is Chairman, Executive Committee, Department of Pediatrics, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University.) 58 The incidence of abortion~ hospitals to preserve the mo l to preserve the mother's he for psychiatric indications decreased in the past twer: ·1 years. The only _type of abortion .'uch has increased during that tim is the abortion done for the so-ca·; · ~d "fetal indication". The use of this itself a misnomer since o t justify an abortion on the fetal indication since no ofetl '· has ever survived an abortion. The jv .dfication for such an abortion mm · then be either a form of euthanasi ~ to spare the child a life with handi: '. ps or for the purpose of saving the J- .. trents the happenstance of having an abnormal child. There is no evidence to in Jicate that the infant with congenital anomalies would rather not be born since he cannot be consulted and no one reallY represents · him when thr abortion decision is made. There is evidence that handiCapped persons do value life after they are born since the incidence of suicide among handicapped persons is apparently lower than . that of the general population (I). Fetal -indications are more accurately parental indications, then, and are based on a reluctance on the Linacre QuarterlY ··of parents to accept a certain tical risk that an infant will abnormal. Every pregnancy, of carries with it the risk of the an infant witp congenital lt i!tlwuuau,c;:,. · The ·risk is never zero IIJIIerccmt. It must be stated that the risk ·~-nv ...... d in no presently recognized hazard would support a of routine abortion. There is accurate and safe method of the abnormal embryo in during the period when an could be done. Trying to do a B'\'()tVrle during . the first trimester an excessive risk of terminating pregnancy or producing fetal ( 4). Recognizing chromosomal not conclusive since the rare disorders now recognized prinCipally sex-linked recessives. then are the risks involved and justify the consideration of IIIU13tllOn of. the life of the fetus. In situation of maternal rubella the first trimester, modern IDecti,re, virologically controlled indicate that no more than of infants will be at risk (2). a figure of 20% would have to such anomalies as remediable defects, tonal hearing loss and ,auterme growth retardation. When of severe life-blighting anomalies due to German he. is talking about cataracts mental retardation. The risk of an suffering one of these calamities less than 20%. In fact, an year prospective followup of born to mothers contracting measles during the first 16 of pregnancy showed their IIIUIJ!erlce distribution to be norma!' risk of an infant being born any type of congenital anomaly is . ~ess in any non-epidemic year It IS during a rubella epidemic (5). Mayer and Parkman (6) of the Institute of Health have ,1969 already reported on field trials of an apparently potent Rubella vaccine, it is likely that a vaccine will be available before the next rubella epidemic occurs, since-epidemics usually occur every five to seven years. The answer to the rubella dilemma lies in this vaccine and not in therapeutic abortion. The problem of teratogenic drug ingestion would also seem irrelevant in this context. Thalidomide was not on the American Market. It is unlikely that a drug with such a teratogenic capability could pass the progeny · study requirements now made mandatory by the Food and Drug AdJ?inistration. Indeed, progeny . studies on the rat and more recently on the baboon (7) have produced limb bud anomalies in animal fetuses almost indentical to the phocomelia seen in human beings. The Thalidomide tragedy was, in a sense, iatrogenic and, therefore, deserving of our profession's utmost concern and compassion. In keeping with noblest medical . traditions is the work of Dr. Gustav H au berg of the Anna Stift rehabilitation school in Hanover Germany. In thiS institution, a team of orthopedists, social workers, and teachers have been engaged in the developing of abilities of Thalidomide-damaged children so that, despite their heavy handicaps, they will still value life. Mental and psychological development has been normal, in most cases, and higher education potential is attributed to most. Thus even such a poignant situation as the birth of 7 000 phocomelics can have its positive aspect when medical resources are properly mobilized. The best preventative against the recurrence of such a tragedy is the basic reluctance of obstetricians to give any new drugs to pregnant women. 59 ~ ·, .·. . .. It is difficult to formulate a therapeutic principle which would apply to the various situations posed by exposure to drugs or disease. If the principle is that it is better for eight or nine normal babies to die than for one or two abnormal babies to be born, then I must say that I reject this principal as wasteful and unreasonable. It seems to me that this viewpoint derives from a cult of perfection which says that life is not worth living unless it is free of handicaps. That vita is not vita unless it . is La Dolce Vita (8). Experience in working with handicapped children would suggest that human nature frequently rises above its ·. impediments and that, in Shakespeare's words, "Best men are molded out of faults and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad". Certainly the en tire medical profes.sion, not just abortion-law revisionists, has compassion for victims of forcible rape and incest. There is a question, however, as to the true dimensions of this problem. Studies on human fertility would suggest that not too many pregnancies are likely to result from a single act of forcible rape. I am informed, by the local states attorneys office that their staff could not recall a single incident of such a pregnancy in an experience covering about nine years of prosecutions fo11 rape. If such a pregnancy were to occur, there is no scientific evidence that psychological trauma would - be prevented, unaffected, or intensified by compounding the shame of rape with the possible guilt of abortion. In the case of statutory rape, there is likewise a question as to the relevance of therapeutic abortion. Teenage girls who become pregnant are largely a group characterized by social isolation 60 and alienation from their ' 'arents. Frequently, they look forwar , to the birth of the infant as a further 1 on eline ss compensatio and, therefore, do not present tl• mselves for therapeutic abortion consi eration. Incestuous pregnancy is n: less a difficult problem. Ma : 'l such pregnancies . are not recog ,zed or admitted until physically ob ous and beyond the time when abort. n would be possible. Many cases ( alleged incest will fail of recognitic because the victim or her mother v a shrink from the financial ruin in ·)lved in a<;cusing the father or the c .. cial ruin involved in convicting a t •ther. In 1966, there were on·: twelve ·indictments for incest enter: ·, in Cook County __ and only a fracti · · of these involved pregnancies ,. • which therapeutic abortion W< Jd have related under any law. Much is made of the -:ppeal to prevent the birth of a nwanted children. It seems to me th:· there is a confusion involved here wh ch results from the failure to distingm ·.;~ between the unwanted child and th• unwanted pregnancy. In fifteen years of experience with the ["'-•rent-child relationship, I have v.-ry rarely encountered a mother who ~~ :iked to be rid of her child once she lud taken it home from the nursery. I have encountered many mother-5, pregnant with their third or fourth child who undergo a kind of panic which requir~s the sympathetic support of thetr family doctor and their husband. According to Hoerck, 7551; of women who were refused abortion under t~e Swedish system, went on to have thetr babies and were happy with thern. According to Aren and Amark, more of these women have an improvement in their mental adjustment than ~ deterioration of ment al health .. wonder if we really want a situatiOn Linacre QuarterlY that ·in Denmark for . example the principal indications for are 1) the stress syndrome of 2) symptoms of and 3) impending of the uninsurable risks · of practice is that we sometimes to believe in the phantasies of patients. Patients may ascribe qualities to us but I doubt they will approve of our acting out. The notion that a physician be allowed to perform any he chooses within the k of the physician-patient onship js a unique and ecedented request for any [)oes the lawyer ask that law is his specialty, laws should left to his conscience? Does the suggest that his position as an entitles him to decide when should occur in public schools? may know how to do an he does not necessarily know it should be done or if it should · done at all. of abortions in the States are performed on who are married, healthy, and with their husbands. Ninety-five of the fetuses destroyed in abortions would have been born If we accept the Kinsey , 88-95% of abortions are d by technically competent of medicine. What do we seems to me that we have a good in Illinois. When physicians the state were asked, the Illinois Medical Journal, t cases where the present law d to the detriment of the or mental health of the mother by depriving her of a . needed abortion, no such..cases were reported. During the past five years, iri this state, we have had five maternal deaths due · to septic criminal abortion, an average of one a year. This must be close to an irreducible minimum. If the law is changed to allow. for a vast increase in the number of abortions performed, there will be many more lives lost and these will be the lives of unborn children. The mortality is 100% for them. Most states recognize that . the unborn child does have rights under the law. A mother may sue for the support of her unborn child or may hold a defendent liable for injuries sustained by her unborn child as a result of accident or assault. An · unborn child may share in an inheritance or workmen's compensation benefits. A pregnant woman convicted of a capital crime may not be executed until after her baby is born. The Constitution in the Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be · deprived of life without due process of law. It is certainly a matter of pause · for the Medical profession to decide whether two doctors in agreement or even an "Abortion Committee" constitutes due process. It seems ironical that when we have established a National Institute of Child Health which specifically directs its attention to child development from the time of conception and while tens of millions are being spent by various national foundations to improve the lot of the unborn, that we should see in this day a movement for more liberal "fetal indications" for abortion. If you ask me therefore to speak for the fetus, then speak for him I will. I speak for him intact or deformed. I speak for him wanted or unwanted. 61 • • ' i• I , ·· · ' , • ·. ' ... ... > ~ -. :·. : ' ·~ , ;~ I ' ' ' •,,. \ ·. Yes, and I speak for him be he illegitimate or high-born. I am for life and the preservation of life. I believe that any life is of infinite value and that this value is not significantly diminished by physical or mental defect or the circumstances of that life's beginning. I believe th t this regard for the quantity and : Jt the quality of life is a cornersl -ne of Western culture. I believe our ; Jtients are served best by a medic ethic which also holds this principle ·acred. REFERENCES 1. Hellegers, A. E. A Doctor Looks at Abortion. Edward Douglas White Lecture. Georgetown University Law School, 1966. 2. Sever, J. L. et al. Rubella Epidemic 1964: Effect on 6,000 Pregnancies. Am. J. Dis. Child. 110:395, 1965. . 3. Sheridan, M.D. Final Report of a Prospective Study of Children _whose Mothers had Rubella in Early Pregnancy. Brit. Med. J. 2:536, 1964. 4. Macintyre, M.N. _March of Dimes Symposium on Birth Defects. Quoted in Medical World News 8:82, Jan. 27, 1967. 5. Siegel, M. and Greenberg, M. Fetal Death, Prematurity and Malformations after Maternal Rubella. New Eng. J. Med. 262:389, 1960. 6. Mayer, H. M. and Parkman, P.D. Oinical Trial of an Experimental Rubella Virus Vaccine. J. Ped. 69:893, 1966. ' 62 7. Axelrod, L. A. & Hendri Southwest Foundation for and Education. Report -, Medical Tribune 72:3, 1966. 8. Bym, R.M. The Anatomy Abortion Reform. Report 4:21. Augm 1966. 9. Hoerck, cited by Asplund, J ·)iscussion of Swedish Abortion Expel nee. Bull. Sloane Hosp. 11-77, 1965. 10. Aren, T. and Amark, R. Tl· Prognosis of Granted but not Perfb .led Legal Abortions. Acta Psych. -nd Neur. Scandanavian Supplement 9 1955. 11. Hoffmeyer, H. Medical As, -cts of the Danish Legislation on Abortion. Western Reserve Law Revi, w 17:529, 1965. 12. Kinsey, A. C. in Abortion ! .. the United States ed. Cald e r un e, M.S. Hoeber-Harper, New York. New York p. 54. Linacre QuarterlY Address to Canon Law ·society Richard Cardinal Cushing talk of us here tonight are priests of and men dedicated and d to the teaching, to the tation, to the application and implementation of law. We be, by reason of our ministry and calling, respecters of the law. our example of respect and by of our dedicated obedience we and we shall encourage the · community and the People God to observe and to obey the law tiously. The laity become and scandalized when they willful and deliberate violation the law onthe part of those, who, reason of their vocation , should be respecters. · it appears that some and immediate good could achieved by violation . of law, the result is apt to be scandalous disastrous. Disrespect for law by who should have a special '1969 commitment to it, will certainly be the breeding ground of indifference to-law on the part of our people. There is no justification for those among us . who take the law into their own hands, who disobey or violate the law, who create and fashion a law unto themselves, or who consider their ideas and programs and ultimate goals above and beyond the law. Good faith and well-intentioned activity cannot excuse. Impatience to change a law or · procedure - however well-founded - cannot justify its infraction. Strive to change a law that needs changing - by all means - but obey it until it is changed. Be consistent at all times and under all circumstances. We note that our Church structure and our theology and our system of law have been described as formalistic, legalistic , casuistic, and unduly concerned over hair-splitting and intricate _ distinctions. Yet , it is noteworthy that some of those who have thus described our systems are very quick to take refuge in distinctions and legalism, when it appears to favor their position or is helpful in explaining and justifying their point of view. 63 ·~ I :' I ' ' • ..... ·. ~ ' I • •, • 'I I ' • • l• ' ' 

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Who Speaks for the Fetus

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