First, the proximate end is a human good, procreation. It is not an effect: “sperm going near an egg.” Second, as other posters have said, and as I have said in my response: IT IS NOT WHETHER THE EFFECT IS ACHIEVED that determines its ordering.
As a brief side note, if I were using New Natural Law (NNL), I am not, then you still misidentify what NNL theorists say the proximate effect of the act is. Insemination, not what happens when semen nears the egg, is what they use. This is because semen traveling into the vagina is more proximate than it reaching the egg (which may happen 3-7 days after insemination). Hence, in the world of cause and effect, insemination is a more proximate effect than fertilization. That being said, I do not agree with New Natural Law Theory, because it contradicts the Magisterium (I can elaborate if you wish).
Now, let’s get to the correct theory, the Manualist Tradition, used by St. Alphonsus. Knowingly and deliberately UNITING and performing the behavioral pattern, the exterior motions in space, determines the act’s ordering towards procreation. Because each act is treated as having a fundamental nature inherent to it, and procreation is the inherent nature to deliberately/knowingly uniting in sexual intercourse union. It alone is ordered to procreation.
It is the MEANS to the end, not whether the effect of insemination is achieved that determines its ordering. I should say, in my post above, when I said it must “culminate in vaginal deposit of semen,” I meant “onanism is detestable.” Even if vaginal deposit of semen fails to occur (say you were having a bad day), sexual intercourse itself is still ordered towards procreation. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith replies in the affirmative that:
"“whether impotence, which renders matrimony invalid, consists in the incapacity, antecedent and perpetual, whether absolute or relative, of performing conjugal copula”
It is the perpetual incapacity to perform sexual intercourse/ consummate the marriage which makes marriage invalid (or not ordered to procreation).
Finally, this is fallacious.
“Sex in an infertile period etc, is ordered towards procreation even if procreation is impossible, thus sex can be ordered towards procreation even if procreation is impossible thus dream sex can be ordered towards procreation.”
Just because SOME acts are still ordered towards procreation that fail to attain procreation, does not imply ALL acts are ordered towards procreation that fail to attain procreation. The ONLY act inherently ordered towards procreation is intercourse. It is only when this specific act fails to attain its effect, is an act that doesn’t attain procreation still “procreative.”
Key Takeaways:
(1) It is sexual intercourse union that abstractly has, “inside” of that specific act itself, combined with the intellect to be an exercise of the will, an inherent ordering towards procreation. And like with all acts, it is NEVER attainment of an end that determines its intrinsic ordering.
(2) Dream sex is not even an act, because most people do not make choices in their dreams
