Sterilization Hypothetical

[Corki]

I agree that the morally correct level is a minimum. However, the inference seems to be that once the morally correct level has been achieved, you don’t need a “worthy” reason to avoid pregnancy. And what qualifies a worthy or unworthy reason?

I believe that the Church teaches you should have a “just” reason to avoid pregnancy. According to my confessor a “just” reason is any reason that is not motivated by selfishness. Just reasons can be permanent, as in “at my age, pregnancy offers too much risk” or temporary, as in “my spouse is in danger or a layoff and it would be unwise to be pregnant when we might not have health insurance”

After reading the actual link to the Pope’s article, clearly he is not allowing for methods other than NFP, which answers part of my question. However, as I mentioned, there was another post in that thread that listed the ethically acceptable birth control methods from NFP, to condoms, on down to less acceptable methods such as sterilization, which was said to be “sometimes justifiable”. Is this true?

There is no such thing as an “acceptable” mortal sin. The poster who posted that heirarchy was giving a personal opinion that is not based on or defensible with Church teaching. So, no it is not true. While a person may *state *that such action is personally justifiable, this doesn’t mean that it is acceptable or ethical as a course of action. It just means that that person has rationalized the sin.

 

[budgie2]

Ok so my wife and I have 3 children and one on the way and my wife says she is done using NFP and is going to use some form of contraception. So NFP is out of the picture and abstinence for the next 10-15 years isn’t going to happen. So my wife is going to use some form of ABC and not much I can do to stop it.

If she gets sterilized and then goes to confession the next day she will be in the state of mortal sin for a day, but if she uses some other method she will be in the state of mortal sin for 10-15 years. I don’t really know the numbers, but It seems the probability of God smiting her while she is in the state of mortal sin is significantly less if she gets sterilized. follow?

Birth control is wrong, but is it wrong to encourage someone to choose the least wrong method of birth control?

Female sterilisation is better than the contraceptive pill in my view as the pill is a steroid and it can also cause abortion and aborts one embryo a year. The problem with female sterilisation is there may be a slightly increased risk of ectopic pregnancy if it’s botched although I don’t know anybody who’s had an ectopic pregnancy from sterilisation. Ideally she would be using none. I haven’t got statistics about ectopic pregnancy but the contraceptive pill is worse morally.

This is from our health service in Britain the NHS giving info about what the contraceptive pill does. The first two actions are contraceptive and the third is abortifacient in law and in the eyes of the pro-life organisations:

nhs.uk/Conditions/Combined-contraceptive-pill/Pages/How-they-work.aspx

 

[kage_ar]

Female sterilisation is better than the contraceptive pill in my view ]

And this is in no way shape of form Catholic teaching.

It is teaching from First Chrurch of Budgie2

 

[Carjack1]

Hi Tosk.

I was in your shoes about 2 years ago. I was a practicing Catholic with this exact same dilemma….although I have less children, they are closer together…and we were trying not to conceive.
We tries various methods and none worked. Basically NFP is not at all as accurate as anyone makes it out to be.
When they say that any method used to avoid pregnancy has its flaws, it’s true, but at least the ABC guys are quoting real life statistics, not statistics that are gathered with perfect, councilled use, under strictly maintained conditions, recorded using women with specific, predictable cycles that didn’t use other drugs that influence fertility reading or any ambient conditions that might influence fertility readings, like what time you get up in the morning, or the amount of light in the room when you take the readings! I know, crazy!!!

The issue I have is that they don’t tell you these things going in. They just sing it’s wonderful praises and tell you that it’s the best thing ever. Well, it’s not. Your situation is not uncommon.
All of a sudden you find yourself knee deep in kids (bless their little hearts, but still) and you know where to turn. And no one will help you…they can’t. This teaching looks all pretty in theory but can very easily get good, faithful folks stranded between a rock (not being able for a myriad of reasons to handle more kids) and a hard place (Church teachings telling you that any action other than the one you’ve been following WILL land you in hell.)

I’m writing this because I had to find out the hard way that there are no easy outs in this. To remain catholic is to either remain abstinence, or use NFP and roll the dice (which ,effectively is what you are doing, they just put a pretty bow on it and call it “god’s will”.

So, after all that, let me assure you that I can relate to at least your wife’s feelings, and I’m also here to tell you that if you want to remain Catholic, you are hooped trying to find a solution.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

PM

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