I see here many, maybe all, individuals who have had a vasectomy in this post had them done while outside of the Catholic Church. My point of view is from someone who has and is a practicing Catholic and has had a vasectomy.
As with a previous individual, our doctor (a devout practicing Catholic) stated after our last child was born that if another pregnancy would occur the chances of the baby not surviving were just shy of guaranteed. In addition, the possibility of my wife not surviving was just as great. Please understand the issue here. Not that the child may be born with special needs, but that the child would not be born alive and that my wife would not survive the pregnancy. If this were an issue of special needs I would not be having this discussion.
With that knowledge and much prayer, I and my wife decided that I would have a vasectomy. I know many out there are going to say that I/we have committed a grave sin and in the eyes of the church that may be so. My intention here is to simply offer a real life, human view point and to not try and change the teaching of the Church.
In the situation of human weakness, when looking at the possibility of having to make a decision on whether to lose a child and save my wife, or deliver the child and lose my wife or even worse, to lose both of them, I choose to not have to make that decision. I thank God that through His grace He allowed the knowledge and intricacies of human childbirth to be understood by gifted doctors and that my family was placed in the care of a Catholic doctor who understood our family’s situation fully.
So, I have had a vasectomy and am Catholic. I am sure many here will condemn my actions as a grave sin and offer many paths for me to follow in reconciling my action. All I can say is thank you, may God bless you, and continue holding true to the faith. I feel we need as many of you as we can get. I am at peace with the decision my wife and I made. Our relationship and closeness as husband and wife has grown exponentially and our family has become stronger. God placed us together and gave us the situation we have. All are blessings. We believe He also gave us knowledge and insight to make difficult decisions when things are not “of the norm”. God does not make junk my kids say, and nothing God does is an accident or mistake. He blesses us all with challenges and difficulties and the issue then comes down to us on how we respond to each other and ourselves.
Anyway, just a point of view from someone like many of you is just trying to make some sense of it all and help as many around us as we can. As full disclosure the doctor I reference above was not the one that performed the vasectomy, obviously he is an OB/GYN, and I never discussed having a vasectomy with him.
