‘Moral guidelines needed to save pregnant women’

Doctors are not issued with guidelines on how to apply “Catholic moral teaching” when a pregnant woman is in need of lifesaving treatment that could harm her unborn baby, Times of Malta is informed. National health ethics committee chairman Pierre Mallia recently told this newspaper: “Maltese law usually respects Catholic moral teaching as the normative value. This allows for harm to be caused, including death (to the unborn child) when it is foreseen, indirect and unintended.” He explained that medics would strictly follow the ethical principle of double effect (see below) when faced with a pregnant woman in need of treatment that could harm her unborn child. Asked to clarify whether medical personnel were issued with guidelines on how to apply this principle in such situations, Prof. Mallia replied: “Not yet. I have been pushing for this and even discussed it with the past and present Health Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Justice. Of course, they have a lot on their plates.” Prof. Mallia had explained that the double effect principle would allow a pregnant woman to receive treatment that indirectly harmed or killed her unborn baby. “But if to save the mother one needs...