Salpinegectomy v. Salpingostomy

Prof. Karen Stohr offers the following additional comment on our ectopic pregnancy discussion:

I'm watching the continuation of this discussion of ectopic pregnancy with considerable interest. Let me just point out, though, that the sources that Professor Myers cites on the management of ectopic pregnancy are far from uncontroversial. There is considerable dispute over whether it is possible to draw a philosophically sound distinction between salpinegectomy on the one hand, and salpingostomy and methotrexate on the other hand. How one draws the distinction depends greatly on what one takes an intention to be, and how intentions relate to action descriptions. One can accept the basic framework of double effect and yet disagree with May et al on the management of ectopic pregnancy, on the grounds that the particular account of intention upon which he relies is philosophically problematic.

For a quite different take on the moral structure of procedures such as salpingostomy, see this article by that mighy triumverate, Grisez, Finnis, and Boyle: "'Direct and Indirect': A Reply to Critics of Our Action Theory" _The Thomist_ 65 (2001): pp. 1-44.

Rob