On 17 December, Msgr. Andreas Laun, bishop emeritus of Salzburg, issued a statement on therapeutic abortion practised subsequent to the 22nd week of pregnancy. The bishop’s stance makes reference to the guidelines recently issued by a group of Austrian physicians, recommending a “gradual protection of prenatal life, increasing in proportion as the pregnancy progresses”. “Why gradual?” asks Bishop Laun: “If the foetus is not yet a person, why does the document speak of the protection of life? And if on the other hand the foetus is already a person, why should the protection of life be gradual?” Rejecting the concept enunciated in the physicians’ document, the bishop affirms: “To speak of gradual protection is illusory: according to this principle, the foetus with grave handicaps enjoys neither juridical nor ethical protection, since its life depends only on the will of the mother or the caprice of her doctors. The document distinguishes, in effect, between those who are still offered protection and those who are denied it, either because they suffer from grave handicap, or because the mother finds herself in too difficult a situation! Has not a similar differentiation between persons on the basis of their capacity to work and with fatal consequences been made in the past?”, the bishop asks. “Systems declares Laun that permit abortion have forfeited all claim to be called ‘lawful'”. “Let us try to change mentality before it is too late”, admonishes the bishop, adding: “How wonderful it would have been if the doctors who signed the document had instead signed an opposite one, distancing themselves for ever from any kind of homicidal act. A document of that kind would trigger a moral earthquake throughout the world and save the life of thousands of children”.
