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ThM 599D:
EXAMINATION
monk writing, Besancon, BM 434, 1372
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MIDTERM
EXAMINATION
To
be completed and returned within two weeks.
In your answers, when you refer (as you
should!) to numbered sections of Catholic Teaching Documents (canons,
encyclicals, the Catechism, etc.) DO
NOT cut and paste the text into your
answer. SUMMARIZE ACCURATELY
what the relevant text says, just as you would in any real pastoral situation.
Please answer both questions
1) An emergency-room physician in your parish asks
for an appointment with you. He wishes to know whether it is permissible to
prescribe a drug that prevents pregnancy by preventing the fertilized zygote
(actually a blastocyst) from implanting in the lining of the uterus. He raises
this question because he has read that some Catholic theologians claim that the
beginnings of “personhood” are delayed until some time after conception. He
thinks this has something to do with twinning and the infusion of the soul.
What do you tell him? What, if anything, do you
recommend that he read?
2) The director of religious education in your
parish has discovered a website that claims that there was a time in the early
church when early abortions were permitted (http://www.hopeclinic.com/AbortionHistory.htm).
She asks you whether this is true and asks for some sources she can use in
teaching.
How do you respond?
3) A 30-year old man in your parish tells you he
has been told that there is a kind of stem-cell research that the Catholic
Church supports. He wants you to tell him more about this.
What do you tell him?
FINAL
EXAMINATION
To
be completed and returned withinn one week.
In your answers, when you refer (as you
should!) to numbered sections of Catholic Teaching Documents (canons,
encyclicals, the Catechism, etc.) DO NOT cut and paste the text into your
answer. SUMMARIZE ACCURATELY what the relevant text says, just as you would in
any real pastoral situation.
Please answer THREE of the following five questions
1) A twenty-six year old married woman asks you, her pastor, for an
appointment. She tells you during the meeting that she has been happily married
to her husband for three years. She explains that although she used birth
control pills before they were married, she stopped using contraceptives after
they had been married for six months, because they wished – and still want - to
have a child. They have been trying to have a child for more than two years,
but without success. She tells you she wants to understand and follow the
Church’s teaching, but that she and her husband are “almost desperate” to have a
child. She plans to visit an infertility clinic, but she wants to know what
approaches to infertility are permitted by the Church.
What do you tell
her? What resources do you recommend to her?
2).A thirty-four year old woman and her
thirty-five year old husband ask to see you, their pastor. You know them well:
they are both lawyers who married in their early thirties, and you remember the
Sunday, six weeks ago, when they announced to you after mass that they were
overjoyed at being pregnant with their first child. Three days ago the woman
had a pre-natal visit, including an ultrasound examination, and she was given
bad news. She was told that their child appears to have a condition called
“cystic hygroma”, which has caused cystic growths on the child’s neck, and
perhaps in other parts of the body. An amnioentesis (withdrawal of amniotic
fluid) revealed that the child also has “Turner’s Syndrome”, a chromosomal
abnormality. The obstetrician has recommended that the woman have an abortion.
The woman and her husband want to know what the Church teaches about situations
like this.
What do you say,
and what do you recommend they do? What questions do you suggest they ask the
obstetrician?
3) A couple in your parish have just given
birth to their second child. The child was born with a condition called
“anencephaly”, and the parents have been told the child will probably die in a
few hours, perhaps a few days at the most. The condition is untreatable and is
always fatal. The doctors have asked the parents’ permission not to start any
intravenous lines or respirator, and they recommend that cardio-pulmonary
resuscitation not be started if the child’s heart stops beating. The parents
are uncertain what to do, and are particularly concerned about a papal document
that they believe requires that artificial nutrition and hydration always be
offered to severely ill persons.
What do you tell
them?
4) An emergency-room physician in your parish asks for an
appointment with you. He wishes to know whether it is permissible to prescribe a
drug that prevents pregnancy by preventing the fertilized zygote (actually a
blastocyst) from implanting in the lining of the uterus. He raises this
question because he has read that some Catholic theologians claim that the
beginnings of “personhood” are delayed until some time after conception. He
thinks this has something to do with twinning and the infusion of the soul.
What do you tell him? What, if anything, do you recommend that
he read?).
5) The director of religious education in your parish has
discovered a website that claims that there was a time in the early church when
early abortions were permitted (http://www.hopeclinic.com/AbortionHistory.htm).
She asks you whether this is true and asks for some sources she can use in
teaching.
How do you respond?
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