Contraception paper

[Just_Lurking]

Contraception is not a direct cause of adultery and fornication, but can act as an enabler by reducing the chances of pregnancy.

Even if you assume this as true sociologically, there is still a logical problem using this to justify the Catholic Church’s teaching, which is absolute in regarding contraception as intrinsically evil.

By way of analogy, consider the drug problem in today’s society. Drug abuse has caused a host of societal problems, from crime to lost productivity to ruined lives, and even death from overdosing. Yet if the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception were applied here, drugs would be classified as intrinsically evil, and a doctor prescribing morphine in a hospital would be just as immoral as a thug on the street pushing drugs to a fifth grade child.

Likewise, it is relatively easy to see why contraception is wrong when it enables an unfaithful spouse to cheat without getting caught. The real challenge is explaining why contraception is just as wrong for a married couple where the wife has a medical condition such that getting pregnant will kill her, her menstrual cycles are such that NFP is completely ineffective, and strain of total abstinence will doom the marriage to failure, leaving the nine children they already have to grow up in a broken home.

Edited to add: Maybe Sure’s comment on the translations of the Latin “conditio” can help here.

 

[CWBetts]

Even if you assume this as true sociologically, there is still a logical problem using this to justify the Catholic Church’s teaching, which is absolute in regarding contraception as intrinsically evil.

By way of analogy, consider the drug problem in today’s society. Drug abuse has caused a host of societal problems, from crime to lost productivity to ruined lives, and even death from overdosing. Yet if the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception were applied here, drugs would be classified as intrinsically evil, and a doctor prescribing morphine in a hospital would be just as immoral as a thug on the street pushing drugs to a fifth grade child.

Likewise, it is relatively easy to see why contraception is wrong when it enables an unfaithful spouse to cheat without getting caught. The real challenge is explaining why contraception is just as wrong for a married couple where the wife has a medical condition such that getting pregnant will kill her, her menstrual cycles are such that NFP is completely ineffective, and strain of total abstinence will doom the marriage to failure, leaving the nine children they already have to grow up in a broken home.

Edited to add: Maybe Sure’s comment on the translations of the Latin “conditio” can help here.

You misunderstand the teaching. If someone is prescribed the pill for therapeutic reasons, and the intent is to regulate the cycle, and not to prevent pregnancy, there is no sin. The woman is taking a medication with the side effect of possibly preventing pregnancy, therefore your morphine analogy is invalid, because it does not accurately depict the teachings of the Church.

 

[Just_Lurking]

You misunderstand the teaching. If someone is prescribed the pill for therapeutic reasons, and the intent is to regulate the cycle, and not to prevent pregnancy, there is no sin. The woman is taking a medication with the side effect of possibly preventing pregnancy, therefore your morphine analogy is invalid, because it does not accurately depict the teachings of the Church.

In my hypothetical, it was the pregnancy itself that would be harmful/fatal for the woman, so there would be direct contraceptive intent.

 

[CWBetts]

Your hypothetical is rife with so many conditions it is silly to even contemplate. Surrounding simple sins with such a bizarre set of circumstances is of little use. My thesis is not to make an excuse for contraception, but to defend the teachings of the Church.

 

[Just_Lurking]

Your hypothetical is rife with so many conditions it is silly to even contemplate. Surrounding simple sins with such a bizarre set of circumstances is of little use. My thesis is not to make an excuse for contraception, but to defend the teachings of the Church.

My point was that your argument concerning adultery only defends the relatively easy principle that the use of contraception is sometimes immoral, and not the full Catholic Church teaching that contraception is always intrinsically evil.

 

[CWBetts]

My point was that your argument concerning adultery only defends the relatively easy principle that the use of contraception is sometimes immoral, and not the full Catholic Church teaching that contraception is always intrinsically evil.

The use of contraception is evil if used for the purpose of contraception.