Temporary infertility treatment

[aux1]

Consider the following theoretical situation.

A woman is naturally infertile. However, she is able to conceive if she takes some medicine. The effect is reversible, i.e. she will revert back to being infertile when she stops taking the medicine.

She takes medicine, has a child, and then stops taking it because she plans to have no more children.

Is such behavior licit?

 

[edward_george]

It doesn’t sound like it would be illicit since she is naturally infertile; openness to life is required for proper intention in situations involving sexual morality, not taking every possible extraordinary measure to have children. Even a woman who is naturally infertile and who is not engaged in some sort of fertility treatment can still have sexual relations that are open to life; this refers not so much to the consequences of the act but rather the ontological and biological ordering of what is taking place–no extraordinary measures for preventing pregnancy are being taken in such a case.

-ACEGC

 

[JerryZ]

Consider the following theoretical situation.

A woman is naturally infertile. However, she is able to conceive if she takes some medicine. The effect is reversible, i.e. she will revert back to being infertile when she stops taking the medicine.

She takes medicine, has a child, and then stops taking it because she plans to have no more children.

Is such behavior licit?

However she is not taking any precautions toward denying the possiblilty of a pregnancy therefore it is licit.
She is not forcing the issue just letting the matter to God’s will.

 

[edward_george]

I would also add that infertility as such is not necessarily an absolute condition; sometimes women who have been told they are completely infertile will conceive naturally at some point. Depends on the specific cause of the condition and whatnot. This is why NFP and things like NaProTechnology are good, as they help identify disorders like that–rather than masking symptoms with something like chemical contraception. But that’s just an aside.

-ACEGC