Hector Treub

“ Needless to state that I have no desire to see a Catholic priest eventually lodged in jail. But the very fact of the possibility of such an occurrence would easily prompt the Holy Office to take into account the mind of the majority of a population of a country where perfect liberty of worship exists, yet where one does not tolerate that the prescriptions of any church shall degrade religion into a Moloch-worship which demands human victims. ”

“ Consequently, as long as the insinuation is not proved, the conclusion abides that medical abortion, being a moral evil, may not be practised to hinder the merely physical evil of the mother's death. " One may not do evil that good may come."
Perhaps Prof. Treub has the following reply ready : Suppose that, by causing abortion, moral evil is done to the fetus' life, then it would be for me, as a physician, a far greater offense to let both mother and child die than to neglect the means of saving at least the mother. ”

“ And if the severe and inflexible decision of the Holy Office does compel the tardy respect for uterine life, then the children spared will far exceed in number the few heroic mothers who, for the sake of a great moral principle, die because they refuse a treatment, with- out which sometimes both mother and child are preserved, and by the application of which the mother is by no means always saved at the cost of -her child's life. ”

“ Treub, who values his knowledge devoted to the relief of suffering humanity above all else, it must doubtless be painful to see a patient, whose life he thinks he can save without fail, prefer death to the violation of a moral principle, which, however sacred to her, is not thoroughly appreciated by him, the doctor. ”

“ Right reason is indeed a true law, which agrees with nature, is to be found with all people, con- stant and perpetual, whose commands urge us to duty and whose prohibitions deter us from wrong. We may neither oppose nor alter this law nor tres- pass against it, nor can it be altogether repealed. Neither the Senate nor the people 'can free us from that law. Nor is that law different at Rome from what it is at Athens, now such and later otherwise, but one, ever- lasting, unchangeable, this law rules all nations at all times, and the one God is the common Master and Commander. ”

“ Such was Aristotle's opinion, adhered to by the scholars of the Middle Ages, though they condemned abortion from the time of conception. It was not till 1620 that Fienus, a physician of Louvain, Belgium, published the first book of modern times that came near the truth. He maintained that the human soul was created and infused into the embryo three days after conception. Nearly forty years later, in 1658, Florentinius, a priest of a religious order, wrote a book in which he taught that the soul may be intellectual or human from the first moment of conception ”

“ We have here an exhaustive statement of the pro and contra of a very important and greatly mooted subject, both sides being represented by learned and distinguished defenders.
In an appendix is published an account of a recently discovered new method of procuring medical abortion, which its author, a French physician, ventures to recommend for the permission of the Church. ”

“ It is a crime against nature, which obstructs the fountains of life, and, therefore, it is punished. The next error assigned is that it ought to have been charged in the count that the woman had become quick. But, although it has been so held in Massa- chusetts, and in some other States, it is not, I apprehend, the law in Pennsylvania, and never ought to have been the law anywhere. It is not the murder of a living child which constitutes the offense, but the destruction of gestation by wicked means and against nature. ”

“ The life of the child is not considered here, and the general inducement for procuring such abortion are the dangers which, in consequence of pregnancy, threaten the health or the life of the mother, and for which there is no other remedy, or for which the woman refuses to take other remedies."* I took the liberty of emphasizing the words containing the doctrine that either the life of the child is held venal or that the end readily justifies the means. ”

“ Liberty indeed, in all that which is reasonable, moral or even doubtful; but, no liberty for Moloch-worship and human sacrifices." There are things which are wrong beyond doubt, which neither can nor should be made doubtful by Church decisions. ”

“ If eventually the judge makes, and must make, allowance for mental confusion in such bewildering emergencies, this does not prove that what has been done was done with correct judgment, or that the action left unpunished, or, for the nonce, held unpunishable, accords with reason and ethics. Penal law is not per se also ethics, especially nowadays, when, according to many schools of juris- prudence, " legality " and morality are completely divorced. ”

“ Well, now, what difference in principle is there between Case A and Case X? That the threat in Case A comes from a debased man, and in Case X from nature, rather favors my position ; for the means which I may not use to free myself from the consequences of an unjust attack, may certainly not be used to prevent the natural con- sequences of a natural condition. ”

“ According to that system, punishable design is the intention of doing a deed punishable by the Penal Code, or " the conscious bent of the will to a definite misde- meanor." The law requires no more to make a deed a misdemeanor, and should one demand, as some think should be demanded in re- gard to medical abortion, that the law should exact more requisites for a misdemeanor, this can not do away with the fact that under present circumstances no more are exacted. ”

“ The difficult question, as to whether the intra-uterine fetus may be killed to save the mother's life, when otherwise both mother and child are in danger of perishing, hinges upon the following funda- mental principles of Catholic, and, I hope also, of Christian, morals :
I. Thou shalt not kill.
II. Uterine life must be respected as much as the extra-uterine. ”

“ To what lengths we shall come if one may pit against principles of morality one's so-called practical sense, one's expediency, may be inferred from the very elastic definition of medical abortion given by Prof. Treub himself : " By artificial abortion is meant the breaking off of pregnancy, done for good reasons, before the fetus is viable, consequently before the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy. ”

“ Gregory of Nyssa taught as early as the fourth century, modern science claims to have proved beyond all doubt. Accordingly, in many States of the Union, the law casts its protection around an unborn infant from its first stage of ascertainable existence. " To make the criminality of abortion depend upon the fact of quickening," says Wharton and Stille's Medical Jurisprudence, " is as repugnant to sound morals as it is to en- lightened physiology." ”

“ A medical operation, forsooth, has not the nature of mal- practice, and is altogether different from the misdemeanor of that name. Not so with abortion. Even though it is produced with a view of saving the mother's life, it assumes the character of that deed which is described in the law as a misdemeanor against life, viz., against the fetus' life.
Lastly, Mr. Noyon thinks he can find justification for abortion in desperate emergencies. In fact, Article 40 of the Penal Code says : " Whoever commits a deed to which he is driven by superior force is not punishable." ”

“ Should the Dutch legislator acknowledge that the law is not equally binding for all Hollanders, but that a large group of Hol- landers are justified in setting the rules of Rome above the law of the land, then the penal laws must needs be altered. ”

“ The thought just expressed God's absolute and exclusive do- minion over all human life involves the great principle underlying the Holy Office's decisions, which Prof. Treub impugns. Because of this principle, it is a crime to cause or bring about abortion, it being equivalent to the direct taking of an innocent human life,*
It matters not that there is not so far a complete unanimity in the answer to the speculative question whether the fetus has a rational soul at the very moment of conception or only after a certain stage of develop- ment. ”

“ Nor can the third reason stand. If the unborn offspring may be sacrificed, because it can not arrive at birth, why might one not also sacrifice the child just born, which is but one step further in its de- velopment and has no chance of surviving (Case A) ? Both must die at all events, die without any consciousness of life, without any conscious enjoyment of life, without having performed any con- scious act.
Some one has contended that 2d and 3d must be taken together ; and that an immature fetus, which can not reach maturity, may be
20 ”

“ That our readers may judge for themselves who, according to Dutch law, are really Moloch-worshippers, i. e., sacrificers of chil- dren's lives, I here quote the statute in full. In title xix. of the Penal Code, under the heading Misdemeanors Against Human Life* we find:
Art. 295. The woman who designedly causes abortion, or the fetus' death, or allows such to be caused, shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed three years.
Art. 296. He who deliberately causes abortion, or the fetus" death, without the mother's consent, shall be punished with imprisonment not to exceed twelve years. ”

“ He proposes that: Whoever forbids or in any way hinders another to call in, or to accept, medical aid for his ailments, shall, in case death result to the other from the illness, be punished with imprison- ment, etc. ”

“ The two rights do not clash as long as the drowning man leaves the other one unmolested ; their rights come into collision, however, through the natural, to them fatal, course of events ; shipwreck, light- ness of the plank, absence of another means of salvation. ”

“ N. having been pregnant for ten or twelve weeks has come to her present precarious condition through uncontrollable vomiting. All remedies proving unavailing, the physician who treated her, Dr. Y., pro- posed abortion as a last resort. The woman replied that her confessor had forbidden such a course. The physician talked the matter over with the priest, among other things pointing to the fact that the saving of the fetus, even only for baptism, was in either case out of the question, as it would surely die before the mother, if things were allowed to take their natural course. ”

“ The fetus no more attacks the mother's life than the mother the child's. Neither of them does aught resembling the just men- tioned attack of the insane man. The latter really attacks, really wrongs the one whose life he threatens, is indeed an agent through whose act a right is injured. It is altogether different with t lie- mother and fetus in our case. ”

“ Since your letter came to hand, I have most care- fully examined the case set forth therein, and, as a result, I am con- strained to inform you that Father X. acted agreeably to the teaching of the Catholic Church. She has always taught that abortion, as a destroying act, is never allowed. As late as 1895, Rome has issued a decision on the subject in answer to the following inquiry:*
Titius medicuSj cum ad praegnantem graviter decumbentem vocabatur, passim animadvertebat lethalis morbi causam aliam non subesse praeter ipsam praegnationem, hoc est foetus in utero praesentiam. ”

“ As regards the bestowal of baptism, the answer is given above. The rule " One may not do evil that there may come good " ex- tends even to the great boon of baptism. Murder is intrinsically evil, is forbidden by the Author of Nature's law, is a crime. Now, God
who forbids murder, and thus also forbade abortion, can not void ”

“ The most renowned professional men teaching moral theology is a profession, forsooth have ever found this matter an extremely dif- ficult one. The Church, having attentively followed the disputes of these most learned professional men, after centuries of prudent hesi- tation at length coming to the decision that a certain medical treat- ment is illicit, it must be evident that submission to this particular treatment can not be imposed on anybody as a strict duty. ”

“ Needless to say that the fetus, being without consciousness, does not inflict a formal or voluntary injury. That is why we prefer the example of an insane man who, while attacking one's life, really and mateiially invades one's right to live, though his act is not voluntary, and, therefore, not formally wrong. ”

“ Y.'s opinion, that by letting nature have her course, the child's life could not have been saved, not even for baptism, remains intact even after this occurrence, because excep- tions can not affect the rule. ”

“ PROF. H. TREUB AS PENAL LEGISLATOR.
by pointing out a duty of conscience causes injury. In reality, he neither causes nor hinders it; he leaves the patient entirely to her conscience; she is, apart from her conscience, quite free to deviate from the advice given. Where is the connecting link be- tween the clergyman's act and the woman's death?
For in so far as the clergyman might be said to be fault of the woman's death, his act can not be called a fault in the strict judicial sense, but would have to be looked upon as design. ”

“ To appeal to the sentiment of the population will, for many rea- sons, help but little, chiefly so because the bulk of our people still believe that the dominion over the unborn man's life and death be- longs altogether and exclusively to the true and living God, and not to Aesculapius, the imaginary god of medicine. ”

“ That in this case there is question of an immature fetus.
3. That this fetus must in any event die before birth.
No one will care to countenance the first reasons. For, apart from the fact that one can not logically detect a difference in rights between the living child in the womb and the same child just born, such ideas would open a wide door to immoral conclusions. For instance, the means that may be employed to save the mother's life, may be resorted also to for other reasons equally grave, e. ”

“ The child has not done anything wilful whatsoever to constitute itself a menace to the mother's life. Hence there can absolutely be no question of an unjust attack. In most cases* the obstacle to de- livery lies with the mother, e. g., narrowness of the pelvis, etc. Con- sequently if through an act of the mother's will, cohabitation, the child has, without its cooperation, been placed in the mother's womb ; if, afterward, by the mother's act efforts are made to remove the child from the womb ”

“ Jam vero lectis, quac 19 Augusti 1888 Sancta Sedes ad Cameracensem Archiepiscopum rescripsit: titto doceri non posse licitam esse quamcumque operationem directe occisivam foetus, etiamsi hoc necessarium foret ad matrem salvandam, dubius haeret Titius circa liceitatem operationum cliirurgicarum, quibus non raro abortum hucusque procurabat, ut praegnantes graviter aegrotantes salvaret. ”

“ According to this view, in keeping with which he lays down his moral principles concerning the punishableness of abortion, (i) the fact that the end of cohabitation has been attained can not of itself be some- thing punishable, because the right to cohabitation, as an act by which the bent of nature is satisfied, stands altogether by itself. And, as far as that is concerned, the preservation of the race is not to be reckoned with. (2.) The not yet viable fetus can not be considered as a man, but merely as a con- glomeration ; of cells, whkh "has no objective right to live. ”