what’s the whole catholic believe on ectopic pregnancy? Because obviously it results in having to terminate the pregnancy, but the human being from point of conception thing means everyone still considers it murder? So how does that work?
the Church leans on the principle of double effect, where an action that is intended for a moral good has a harmful consequence. as long as the harmful consequence is not the intent, something is allowed to go ahead.
in the case of ectopic pregnancies, the Church says that treatment is permitted to remove the foetus without the intention of killing the foetus, but this will naturally be the effect. typically, this manifests as the whole fallopian tube being removed (if that is where the foetus has implanted), which has the consequence of the foetus dying, but the intention was to safely remove the fallopian tube to save the life of the mother.
