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1
1ke
Guest
Not all persons who limit their family size do so via contraception. You fail to see see that there is **not **a one-to-one correspondence between the two.Yes the birth rate has a direct link with bith control, women take bc to have less childrenInfertile couples play a very small role in the birth rate.
I see no purpose in such a course, nor have I ever heard of a “Population Course” in college.Take a population college course.loved it!
1
1ke
Guest
I still have NO idea what you are talking about.
D
dessert
Guest
Thanks I did know someone a long time ago who worked in one but she wouldn’t talk much about it. She did say she was adopted and resented it for years that her mother gave her up. Trying to get through the anger was impossible she had such a wall and so I believe that is why she worked there. There are many reasons why people don’t want kids and instead of seeking healing their problem they only see children as a problem. We do have one in our state capital.
K
Kadaveri
Guest
Ok for the Muslim view: some scholars consider contraception as completely forbidden, but the majority treat coitus interruptus as permissable to space out children (though never as a permanent measure) with both partners consent if they’re in financial difficulties or something like that.
So practicing Muslims will almost always have large families (6+ children isn’t unusual).
So practicing Muslims will almost always have large families (6+ children isn’t unusual).
P
praesidi
Guest
I was cruising through and saw this thread. There are numerous schools of jurisprudence concerning the Shariah in both Sunni and Shi’ite Islam. For the most part, they agree on the alrger concepts. Below is a general analysis of what is generally acceptable (Halal) and forbidden (Haram). If you have more specific questions then the answers can get more complicated.
Fertility Regulation
Contraception
Islam permits contraception as long as it does not entail the radical separation between marriage and its reproductive function. Since the time of the prophet contraception has been practiced, but he made it clear that it should be a joint decision between husband and wife. The general recommendation is for the Islamic nation to procreate and grow in numbers, but quality and not sheer numbers was well emphasized by Mohammad. One of his very prophetic sayings was: “There will come the day when other nations will fall upon you like hungry eaters upon a bowl of food.” When asked whether this would be due to lack of numbers he said “No. On that day you will be so many, but (quality wise) like the froth on the surface of the torrent.”
Throughout Islamic history jurists permitted family planning for a number of reasons: health, socio-economics, etc. up to merely preserving the beauty of the woman’s body. Both natural and medicinal methods of contraception are acceptable, provided the method is not harmful and does not work as an abortifacient. Family planning should be the choice of the individual family without coercion or pressure. Countries that adopt a population policy may resort to wide campaigns of education to ensure the accessibility of contraceptive technology, but the decision rests with the family.
Reservations about population programs designed by Western countries for the Third World were referred to earlier. There is a consciousness about a “demographic warfare” to strip populations of their sheer power of numbers or to reduce majorities to minorities in some areas. There is also alarm about contraceptive material banned from use in their (Western) countries of origin while at the same time they are abundantly exported to Islamic and Third World countries, compromising on safety standards. More investment in developing resources and a willingness to transfer necessary technology on part of the West remains to be seen.
Breast Feeding
This has a prominent place in Islamic teaching. As a family planning method it is not a reliable prescription for the individual family; but it has been estimated on a group (collective) basis to be a more potent contraceptive than all other methods put together, measured by the drop in fertility rate in a community of suckling women. The Quran mentions breast feeding and recommends that its natural course is the span of two years. In Islam, however, breast feeding is more than a nutritional (or family planning) process. It is a “value” and a special bond, so much so that a woman other than the natural mother who breast feeds an infant acquires a special status in Islamic law which is called “suckling parenthood”, and this woman is called the infant’s “mother in lactation”. To accentuate its value, “lactation motherhood” is given the status of natural motherhood in certain legal rulings concerning marriage. The result is that such a mother’s natural children are considered “lactation siblings” of the nursed infant, who therefore may not marry any of them.
The Intra-uterine Device
If the device acted to cause abortion it would not be acceptable. Its action, however, was explained on the basis of preventing implantation. The current generations of the device contain a copper wire that releases spermicidal copper ions, or include the hormone progesterone that thickens the mucus in the canal of the womb so it cannot be penetrated by sperm. Both actions put the device in the category of contraception and not abortion. This was confirmed by a release from the World Health Organization
I will post again to finish posting the relevant discussion.
Fertility Regulation
Contraception
Islam permits contraception as long as it does not entail the radical separation between marriage and its reproductive function. Since the time of the prophet contraception has been practiced, but he made it clear that it should be a joint decision between husband and wife. The general recommendation is for the Islamic nation to procreate and grow in numbers, but quality and not sheer numbers was well emphasized by Mohammad. One of his very prophetic sayings was: “There will come the day when other nations will fall upon you like hungry eaters upon a bowl of food.” When asked whether this would be due to lack of numbers he said “No. On that day you will be so many, but (quality wise) like the froth on the surface of the torrent.”
Throughout Islamic history jurists permitted family planning for a number of reasons: health, socio-economics, etc. up to merely preserving the beauty of the woman’s body. Both natural and medicinal methods of contraception are acceptable, provided the method is not harmful and does not work as an abortifacient. Family planning should be the choice of the individual family without coercion or pressure. Countries that adopt a population policy may resort to wide campaigns of education to ensure the accessibility of contraceptive technology, but the decision rests with the family.
Reservations about population programs designed by Western countries for the Third World were referred to earlier. There is a consciousness about a “demographic warfare” to strip populations of their sheer power of numbers or to reduce majorities to minorities in some areas. There is also alarm about contraceptive material banned from use in their (Western) countries of origin while at the same time they are abundantly exported to Islamic and Third World countries, compromising on safety standards. More investment in developing resources and a willingness to transfer necessary technology on part of the West remains to be seen.
Breast Feeding
This has a prominent place in Islamic teaching. As a family planning method it is not a reliable prescription for the individual family; but it has been estimated on a group (collective) basis to be a more potent contraceptive than all other methods put together, measured by the drop in fertility rate in a community of suckling women. The Quran mentions breast feeding and recommends that its natural course is the span of two years. In Islam, however, breast feeding is more than a nutritional (or family planning) process. It is a “value” and a special bond, so much so that a woman other than the natural mother who breast feeds an infant acquires a special status in Islamic law which is called “suckling parenthood”, and this woman is called the infant’s “mother in lactation”. To accentuate its value, “lactation motherhood” is given the status of natural motherhood in certain legal rulings concerning marriage. The result is that such a mother’s natural children are considered “lactation siblings” of the nursed infant, who therefore may not marry any of them.
The Intra-uterine Device
If the device acted to cause abortion it would not be acceptable. Its action, however, was explained on the basis of preventing implantation. The current generations of the device contain a copper wire that releases spermicidal copper ions, or include the hormone progesterone that thickens the mucus in the canal of the womb so it cannot be penetrated by sperm. Both actions put the device in the category of contraception and not abortion. This was confirmed by a release from the World Health Organization
I will post again to finish posting the relevant discussion.
P
praesidi
Guest
As promised here is the end of it and it also goes into sterility. It is not a hard guide, but it is a good general education of the reproductive beliefs of Islam. If you wish to be prepared for outreach to a Muslim, should you see one at PP or about to do something abortifacient, just ask me and I’ll provide you with relevant Hadith, scholars quotes, and Quran verses.
Abortion
There are no “pro-life” and “pro-choice” lobbies in Islamic communities, with a raging battle such as takes place in America. Islam views abortion very differently from contraception, since the former entails the violation of a human life. The question that naturally arises is whether the term “human life” includes the life of the fetus in the womb. According to Islamic jurisprudence it does. Islam accords the fetus the status of “incomplete zimma”. Zimma is the legal regard that allows rights and duties, and that of the fetus is incomplete in the sense that it has rights but owes no duties. Some of these rights of the fetus are:
(a) If a husband dies while his wife is pregnant, the law of inheritance recognizes the fetus as an inheritor if borne alive. Other inheritors would receive their shares in accordance with the prescribed juridical proportions, but only after the share of the unborn is set aside to await its birth.
(b) If a fetus is miscarried at any stage of pregnancy and shows signs of life such as a cough or movement and then it dies, such fetus has the right to inherit anything it was legally entitled to inherit from anyone who died after the beginning of the pregnancy. After this fetus dies, what it has inherited is inherited in turns by its legal heirs.
(c) If a woman commits a crime punishable by death and is proven pregnant, then the execution of the punishment shall be postponed until she gives birth and nurses her baby until it is weaned. This applies irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, however early, denoting the right of the fetus to life from its beginning. It applies even if the pregnancy was illegitimate, which shows that the fetus conceived out of wedlock also has the right to life. All sects and juridical schools unanimously uphold this ruling.
There is also a money penalty for abortion even if it was inadvertent. This is called the “ghorra”. If aggression or willful action causes abortion, suitable punishment by the court is also imposed.
The question of the beginning of life has been discussed since early times, since the admissibility of abortion hinged around the existence of life (some old jurists permitted abortion before four months, others before seven weeks, of pregnancy, on the assumption that life had not started in the pregnancy.) Some ten centuries ago, a notable scholar called Al-Ghazali rightly described a phase of imperceptible life, before the phase that the mother could feel in the form of fetal quickening. Recent juridical congresses reviewed the subject taking into account the applications of modern technology, and concluded that the stage of an individual’s life that can be called its beginning should satisfy ALL the following criteria: (1) it should be a clear and well-defined event; (2) it should exhibit the cardinal feature of life: growth; (3) if this growth is not interrupted, it will naturally lead up to the subsequent stages of life as we know them; (4) it contains the genetic pattern that is characteristic of the human race at large, and also of a unique specific individual; and (5) it is not preceded by any other phase which combines the first four. Obviously, these postulates refer to fertilization.
Abortion, however, is permitted if the continuation of pregnancy poses a threat on the mother. The Shari’a considers the mother to be the root and the fetus to be the offshoot; the latter to be sacrificed if this is necessary to save the former. There are some arguments also in favor of expanding the admissibility of abortion to cover drastic cases of congenital anomalies and fetal illness incompatible with feasible life if performed before pregnancy is four months.
Sterilization
Unless done for a clear medical indication this operation is generally forbidden. No government policy should pressure people into undergoing sterilization. The doctor has the right to decline performing the operation if not convinced that it is in the best interests of the patient.
And again, please note that I have taken this with consultation from Muslim friends and it is a quoted excerpt from instructional materials intended to teach Muslim’s about their own faith’s beliefs on reproductive health. Because I have posted it, it does not in any way constitute or imply that I believe or promote these views.
Abortion
There are no “pro-life” and “pro-choice” lobbies in Islamic communities, with a raging battle such as takes place in America. Islam views abortion very differently from contraception, since the former entails the violation of a human life. The question that naturally arises is whether the term “human life” includes the life of the fetus in the womb. According to Islamic jurisprudence it does. Islam accords the fetus the status of “incomplete zimma”. Zimma is the legal regard that allows rights and duties, and that of the fetus is incomplete in the sense that it has rights but owes no duties. Some of these rights of the fetus are:
(a) If a husband dies while his wife is pregnant, the law of inheritance recognizes the fetus as an inheritor if borne alive. Other inheritors would receive their shares in accordance with the prescribed juridical proportions, but only after the share of the unborn is set aside to await its birth.
(b) If a fetus is miscarried at any stage of pregnancy and shows signs of life such as a cough or movement and then it dies, such fetus has the right to inherit anything it was legally entitled to inherit from anyone who died after the beginning of the pregnancy. After this fetus dies, what it has inherited is inherited in turns by its legal heirs.
(c) If a woman commits a crime punishable by death and is proven pregnant, then the execution of the punishment shall be postponed until she gives birth and nurses her baby until it is weaned. This applies irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, however early, denoting the right of the fetus to life from its beginning. It applies even if the pregnancy was illegitimate, which shows that the fetus conceived out of wedlock also has the right to life. All sects and juridical schools unanimously uphold this ruling.
There is also a money penalty for abortion even if it was inadvertent. This is called the “ghorra”. If aggression or willful action causes abortion, suitable punishment by the court is also imposed.
The question of the beginning of life has been discussed since early times, since the admissibility of abortion hinged around the existence of life (some old jurists permitted abortion before four months, others before seven weeks, of pregnancy, on the assumption that life had not started in the pregnancy.) Some ten centuries ago, a notable scholar called Al-Ghazali rightly described a phase of imperceptible life, before the phase that the mother could feel in the form of fetal quickening. Recent juridical congresses reviewed the subject taking into account the applications of modern technology, and concluded that the stage of an individual’s life that can be called its beginning should satisfy ALL the following criteria: (1) it should be a clear and well-defined event; (2) it should exhibit the cardinal feature of life: growth; (3) if this growth is not interrupted, it will naturally lead up to the subsequent stages of life as we know them; (4) it contains the genetic pattern that is characteristic of the human race at large, and also of a unique specific individual; and (5) it is not preceded by any other phase which combines the first four. Obviously, these postulates refer to fertilization.
Abortion, however, is permitted if the continuation of pregnancy poses a threat on the mother. The Shari’a considers the mother to be the root and the fetus to be the offshoot; the latter to be sacrificed if this is necessary to save the former. There are some arguments also in favor of expanding the admissibility of abortion to cover drastic cases of congenital anomalies and fetal illness incompatible with feasible life if performed before pregnancy is four months.
Sterilization
Unless done for a clear medical indication this operation is generally forbidden. No government policy should pressure people into undergoing sterilization. The doctor has the right to decline performing the operation if not convinced that it is in the best interests of the patient.
And again, please note that I have taken this with consultation from Muslim friends and it is a quoted excerpt from instructional materials intended to teach Muslim’s about their own faith’s beliefs on reproductive health. Because I have posted it, it does not in any way constitute or imply that I believe or promote these views.
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