Doctor Sacrifices Life For Unborn Daughter
A reader sent me the following story:
Family and friends farewelled Dr Ellice Hammond, 37, at a funeral service yesterday, the same day anti-solarium campaigner Clare Oliver succumbed to melanoma.
Dr Hammond lost her battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma on Sunday, three weeks after daughter Mia Ellice was born nine weeks prematurely at the Monash Medical Centre, where she remains in neonatal intensive care, The Herald Sun said today.
Dr Hammond was diagnosed in the 22nd week of pregnancy and refused high-level chemotherapy that could have saved her but might have killed Mia, whose induced birth took place on August 20.
Dr Hammond had three reduced-strength chemotherapy treatments during the pregnancy, but the cancer returned worse than before each time and full-strength treatments following Mia's birth did not save her.
Husband, Peter Wojcik said he was proud of his wife's devotion to their child.
“It feels like I got robbed of a wife and a mother,” he told the Herald Sun.
“I guess she didn't expect it to go this way, and if she did she wasn't telling us.
“But she would just want what is best for Mia and for everyone to love her and carry on with life.
“Her whole life was looking forward to being a mum. She loved it.
Please pray for her family.
The story does remind you of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla another doctor, though in her case she had developed a fibroma on her uterus which was successfully removed. She actually died of peritonitis after delivery of her child suggesting a botched C-section.
Known as 
Sad story..but very brave lady...
A TRUE MOTHER she loved the child and gave without measure.
Does that qualify as martyrdom? If so, doesn't that potentially fast track her for sainthood? just wonderin'.
A beautiful, heroic act. I don't think it qualifies as martyrdom, though, because although it was extraordinary in the sense of humanity, in the Christian sense was there another choice?
Consider, for instance, the martyrdom of St Maximilian Kolbe. It would not have been a sin for him to remain a silent prisoner. His choice to give his life for another was not a choice between a guilty act and an innocent one, but between an innocent one and a selfless one.
In the case of pregnancy, doesn't the Church mandate the mother's selflessness when the unborn child is in danger? I am not trying to trivialize the mother's courage, just saying it seems to me like a captain/sinking ship scenario...
If the act of saving the mother's life is directly an abortion, or otherwise immoral then the act is wrong because the ends do not justify the means.
However if both the mother and the baby cannot be saved and if the act of saving the mother's life is not an abortion, and is of itself a moral action, but unintentionally brings about an abortion then that is permissible. That includes when the abortion is foreseen. This is the principle of "double effect."
In the case of an ectopic pregnancy if nothing is done then both the mother and the baby will die. If the non-uterine tissue where the ovum implanted is not removed then she will die, this removal indirectly, unintentionally and foreseeably brings about an abortion. However double effect applies and the act is not wrong however terribly unfortunate it is.
In the case where it is either the mother or the baby that dies then it is the choice between a moral choice (the baby dying by double effect and the mother living) and a heroic choice (the mother consciously sacrificing her own life for the baby).
"In the case where it is either the mother or the baby that dies then it is the choice between a moral choice (the baby dying by double effect and the mother living) and a heroic choice (the mother consciously sacrificing her own life for the baby)."
Thanks for clearing that up, Anthony. It's still fuzzy when cancer is the issue rather than ectopic pregnancy, though, because the rate of cure from chemo is not so high as to be called saving the mother's life, is it? There seems to be such a sticky matter of degree of probability here. My prayers go out to all who are faced with such situations, especially when there are other children involved as in Gianna's case. Certainly, this mother's choice was heroic.