CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE

PAGE

There is a Supreme Being who alone is master of life. The Natural Law. The nature and determinants of morality. Probabilism. Permissive suicide. Suicide is illicit. Conscience. Homicide, direct and indirect. Self-defence. Formal and material aggressors. Legalized homicide. Bibliography1-22

CHAPTER II

GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING MUTILATION

Mutilation. Canonical irregularity. Self-mutilation. The double effect in morality. Direct and indirect mutilation. The State and mutilation. The dominion of the State23-32

CHAPTER III

WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN?

Ancient and modern opinions. The fetus is animated at the moment of conception. The single cell as the primal life-organ. Cell growth and division. Germ cells. The development of the embryo. Fetal viability. Theories of development. The Aristotelian and Thomistic opinions. The formal principle. A soul exists. The primordial cell is a sufficient organ for the soul. Metabolism in the cell. Cell motion. Animal heat and energy. Life in separated tissues. The soul in monsters33-82

CHAPTER IV

WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE END?

The heart and life. Resuscitation after apparent death. The last sacraments in apparent death. Suspended animation. The living fetus in the womb of a dying or dead mother. Methods of resuscitation. Signs of death83-91

CHAPTER V

ABORTION

Abortion and miscarriage. Causes of abortion, fetal, maternal and paternal. Surgical operations and abortion. The debitum in pregnancy. Premature labor. Threatened, inevitable, and incomplete abortions. Treatment. The use of the tampon. Precautions against abortion. Therapeutic abortion. Methods of inducing abortion. Artificial abortion of an inviable fetus is never licit. Decrees of the church concerning abortion. The civil law on abortion92-123

CHAPTER VI

ECTOPIC GESTATION

Ectopic gestation or extrauterine pregnancy. Anatomy of the uterus and its adnexa. Place of fecundation. The abnormal uterus. Tubal rupture and tubal abortion. Diagnosis. Decrees of the church on ectopic gestation. Removal of an inviable ectopic fetus except in present peril of life is illicit124-132

CHAPTER VII

CESAREAN DELIVERY

Indications for cesarean delivery. Abnormal pelves. Symphyseotomy. Varieties of cesarean delivery. Morality. Amputation of the uterus after cesarean delivery. Precautionary sterilization of a cesarean case is illicit133-142

CHAPTER VIII

PLACENTA PRAEVIA AND ABRUPTIO PLACENTAE

Nature and effects of placenta praevia. Treatment. Morality and methods of treatment. Abruptio placentae. Morality of fetal removal143-146

CHAPTER IX

ABDOMINAL TUMORS IN PREGNANCY

Tumors blocking parturition. Fibroids or myomata. Ovarian tumors. Cancer. Effects and morality of operation147-152

CHAPTER X

APPENDICITIS IN PREGNANCY

Occurrence. Time of operation. Diagnosis153-154

CHAPTER XI

PUERPERAL INSANITY AND STERILIZATION

Causes. Varieties. Prognosis. Precautionary sterilization of puerperal psychopaths is illicit155-157

CHAPTER XII

NEPHRITIS IN PREGNANCY

Frequency. Effects. Abortion as a treatment. Varieties of nephritis. Pyelitis. Catalepsy158-161

CHAPTER XIII

ECLAMPSIA PARTURIENTIUM

Definition. Symptoms. Prognosis. Causes. Precautions against eclampsia. Forced delivery. The expectant treatment. Relative mortality and morality of the methods. Cesarean delivery as a treatment. The expectant treatment is apparently the best162-169

CHAPTER XIV

HEART DISEASES IN PREGNANCY

Factors in abnormal gestation. The use of pituitrin. Weak pains and the diseased heart. The diseased heart in actual parturition. Operative risk in cardiopaths. Heart block and mitral regurgitation in labor. Prognosis170-176

CHAPTER XV

HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM

Pernicious vomiting. Occurrence. Symptoms. Stages. Effects. Causes. Therapeutic abortion in pernicious vomiting. Treatment177-181

CHAPTER XVI

CHOREA GRAVIDARUM AND HYSTERIA

Varieties of chorea. Differentiation. Prognosis. Hysteria. Causes. Epidemics of hysteria. Symptoms. Prognosis182-186

CHAPTER XVII

ACUTE YELLOW ATROPHY OF THE LIVER IN PREGNANCY

Icterus gravis. Causes. Symptoms. Prognosis187-188

CHAPTER XVIII

INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN PREGNANCY

Effects on mother and fetus. Abortions in infectious diseases. Placental permeability. Typhoid. Smallpox. Pneumonia. Influenza. Scarlatina. Measles. Cholera. Tuberculosis. Artificial abortion in tuberculosis189-200

CHAPTER XIX

SYPHILIS IN PREGNANCY AND MARRIAGE

Prognosis. Abortion. Infection of mother and fetus. Colles' Law. Erroneous notions on the curability of syphilis. Once a syphilitic probably always a syphilitic. The professional secret in syphilis. Nature of secrets. The physician may warn an innocent person201-211

CHAPTER XX

GONORRHOEA IN MARRIAGE

The cause of gonorrhoea. Tests of cure. Effects on a woman. Chronicity. Prevalence. Surgical treatment in women. Morality of the surgical treatment. Conservative surgery. Salpingotomy. Ovariotomy. Evil effects of ovariotomy. Internal secretion of the ovary. Results of various operations. Pregnancy after operation. Morality of infection. General effects of gonorrhoea. Ophthalmia neonatorum and gonorrhoea212-229

CHAPTER XXI

DIABETES IN PREGNANCY

Fatality of diabetes in pregnancy. Diagnosis. Sterility of diabetics. Prognosis. Heredity in diabetes. Therapeutic abortion in diabetes230-231

CHAPTER XXII

CHILDBIRTH IN TWILIGHT SLEEP

Twilight sleep to avert pain in parturition. Stages of labor. Drugs used. Scopolamine and morphine. Danger in the use of these drugs in labor. Contradictory report of physicians on twilight sleep. Eminent authorities opposed to the methods. Baer's report on the evil effects. The methods are morally illicit and useless232-244

CHAPTER XXIII

VASECTOMY, OR STERILIZATION, BY STATE LAW

The States that have this law. Reasons for the law. Hereditary transmission of certain diseases. The operation. Its effects. Restoration of the function of the interrupted vas deferens. Vasectomy and impotence. Onanism. Vasectomy effects impotence from the moral point of view. Other conditions in the male that effect moral impotence. Immorality of artificial impregnation. Vasectomy a grave mutilation. Vasectomy as ordinarily practised is illicit. The State and vasectomy. The limitations of the State's dominion. The State surgeon and vasectomy. Bibliography245-268

CHAPTER XXIV

THE ETHICS OF BIRTH CONTROL269

Index281