In malpractice case, Catholic hospital argues fetuses aren’t people | The Colorado Independent.
This legal maneuver doesn’t enhance the public image of Catholic Health Initiatives, and you can bet that Obama’s vultures are circling. It appears from reports that Lori Stodghill lost her life at Thomas More Hospital in Canon City due to a pulmonary embolism which led to a massive heart attack. Her two unborn babies also died, and the current lawsuit argues that this need not have happened. Dr. Pelham Staples, the hospital’s obstetrician on call did not answer his pager, for reasons unspecified in the reports.
The surprise inside this case is the lawyer, proffering a defense that the babies are not legal persons, and therefore are not protected by Colorado malpractice statutes. Lawyer Jason Langley argued that the court “should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,’ as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person’ under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses.”
This kind of defense is not a good idea for Catholic Health Initiatives for a number of ethical reasons. It could also cost their member institutions more in philanthropic contributions than the cost of losing the Stodghill lawsuit.
It also undermines any Catholic objections to the HHS mandate. Obama’s team must be laughing themselves silly to see such a bad maneuver by this significant group of ideological opponents.
Is this battle worth losing the war?
Lori Stodghill weighted over 400 lbs the day she died. Her twin boys weighted just over 3 lbs each. Lori Stodghill was only 31 years old and had a two year old. Lori Stodghill was the perfect candidate that should have been using a safe method of birth control, such as the IUD, to plan her pregnancies for a healthy birth.
Artificial methods of birth control is against the Catholic Church beliefs. Beliefs that they want to impose on non Catholics. The GOP Congress H.R. 23 would also ban birth control that would prevent the implantation of an embryo.
Lori Stodghill should have been hospitalized for monitoring her high-risk pregnancy. I'm sure the good catholic hospital would have picked up the tab for the well-being of the fetuses. Ha Ha.
Addressing Chris\’s misconceptions: The Catholic church cannot stop public access to birth control. These drugs have largely gone generic and are often sold as loss leaders by retail pharmacies. They are extremely affordable.
There is a good deal of leftist whining because they\’d like to force the Church to be involved in birth control, and after that, force it upon women. Once the choice of health care providers and insurers is gone, the choice of women goes next.
Since birth control hormones are not as effective as advertised, (even less so in the obese) a woman who cannot risk pregnancy for health reasons should not be relying on BC pills for birth control. They\’re not effective enough.
Such a thing as an hormone eluting IUD or BC pills would be particularly dangerous in the morbidly obese, as Chris describes the patient. The liabilities of pregnancy with respect to increasing the incidence of blood clots are shared by combo birth control hormones. On the other hand, the progestin only hormones have the liability of exacerbating osteoporosis and weight gain, and therefore are also a problem for an obese person.
If the patient is as obese as the above message claims, the lawsuit would be less likely to bring a big payout, and there is less \”excuse\” for inappropriate and incorrect reliance upon Colorado\’s definition of \”personhood\”