Mental wellness is unacceptable. The decisive voice of Polish bishops

Members of the Panel of Experts of the Polish Bioethical Episcopal Conference stressed that psychiatric judgments should not be allowed to advance abortion on request. In a post issued on 29 April, they referred to abortion practice “in the case of a kid capable of surviving independently on the basis of intellectual wellness reasons”.

The squad of Bioethic experts in a peculiar position addressed the information "on the practice of inducing asystole (i.e. cardiac arrest by giving potassium chloride to the child's heart) in unborn, capable of surviving independently children, based on a message by a psychiatrist about the wellness and/or life-threatening woman". The squad recalled the Church's position on abortion and reacted decisively to killing unborn children and utilizing psychiatry to justify these actions.

Episcopal experts pointed to the sharp increase in abortions carried out in 2024 compared to 2023, most of which were based on psychiatric certificates. “This seems to indicate the entry of Polish medicine into the slippery slope”, wrote members of the KEP Team. They added that "from a moral point of view, the situation proves the failure of the wellness strategy in Poland".

As regards the case where the unborn kid was diagnosed with congenital bone fractures, they noted that in current medical practice, “it is suspected of mediocre quality of life of the kid after birth, even though that is usually not the case”. Members of the KEP Bioethical Expert Group pointed out that this uncertainty had begun to be regarded as “a rationale allegedly justifying the death in the womb of even a kid who was at the end of pregnancy”.

In assessing this practice, the document's authors stressed that specialised centres propose therapeutic and thus ethical solutions in akin cases, ranging from C-section to paediatric treatment.

"The argument that execution of a kid reported is simply a more favourable solution for a parent than carrying out a safe birth by the imperial cutting method is in the opinion of the Expert Group," we read in the position. KEP experts besides pointed out that "psychiatry cannot warrant that his parent will become healthy after the death of an unborn child" and that there is no method of treating intellectual disorders by "termining pregnancy".

According to KEP experts, the indication by doctors of psychiatric disorders that are grounds for abortion violates Article 39 of the Code of Medical Ethics, which states that "when taking medical action in pregnant women, the doctor is besides liable for the wellness and life of the unborn child".

Members of the KEP Bioethical Expert Group stressed one more time that the legal protection of the life of all man from conception to natural death is not ideological or religious, but is an expression of awareness that human life is the most basic good. They besides cited the provisions of Articles 38 and 48 of the Polish Constitution imposing an work on the State to take action to defend life. "It is impossible to reconcile the state's commitment to care for patients with uncommon diseases with the silent sanctioning of the child's execution with the uncommon genetic disease," they wrote.

They besides quoted the words of St. John Paul II from the encyclical “Evangelium vitae” that “no circumstance, no purpose, no law in the planet will always be able to make a righteous act that itself is wicked.” In the final part of the document, they recalled that the Code of Canon Law states that those who abortion and assist in carrying out it are punished by excommunication. “This applies only to those who are members of the Catholic Church, due to the fact that it is impossible to exclude from the community individual who does not belong to it and are besides aware of canonical sanctions.”

BP KEP

Source: KAI

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