"But by definition, bulimia is binge eating followed by purging and that is just the physical characteristics of the disorder. Once you start considering the emotional complications involved in bulimia, the analogy gets even more difficult to make. So like I said, neither analogy does the topic justice."
When I first heard the bulimia analogy it made me wonder about gastric bypasses.
If it is bad to "mutilate" your body to obstruct the natural gift of fertility....why isn't the Church opposed to stomach stapling for the same reason?
lol...touche'
Pregnancy and lactation are the only body system functions I can think of which are potential in the adult. Everything else is actual: the heart pumps blood, the stomach digests, the intestines absorb, the kidneys filter, the muscles move, endocrines regulate, the nerves transmit...
And it is this potential function of pregnancy which is somehow set apart in the Church. You can remove an organ if it becomes dangerous or potentially dangerous to you, or even very inconvenient. A gangrenous limb - off. A cancerous lung - out. Breasts with a high risk of cancer - you may remove. A gall bladder that keeps making gallstones, or a uterus with bad fibroids - you may remove. A cancerous prostate whose removal will cause impotence - you may remove. Ovaries with a high risk of cancer - you may remove. Even a cancerous pregnant uterus you may remove. An ectopic pregnancy you may remove - if you treat it as a diseased fallopian tube and not as a pregnancy.
But if it is the state of pregnancy itself that is dangerous - if pregnancy would overtax a weak heart or kidneys - if it would with a very high likelihood cause hyperemesis gravidarum or severe early preeclampsia - tough, suck it up, offer it up. You may not remove the potential of pregnancy for the purpose of removing its potential danger.
Mrs VS
Dear Scotswife,
"If it is bad to 'mutilate' your body to obstruct the natural gift of fertility....why isn't the Church opposed to stomach stapling for the same reason?"
Obesity is a disease. Pregnancy isn't.
Surgery to cure a disease, or to correct something that's not working properly in the body is surgery, is medicine. Surgery to remove or break something that is working properly is mutilation.
sitetest