Authors: Patrick Coffin
Sex Au Naturel (20 page)
1
^
The plot lines of some Greek myths refected current events and concerns. There is a reference to overpopulation in
The Cypria
, a part of the Epic cycle that, along with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, relates the history of the Trojan War, by which Zeus was moved to prune population levels. There are also expressions of worry over a population explosion in Confucius and Plato, as well as in the work of early Christian writers Tertullian and St. Jerome.
2
^
Halliday G. Sutherland, MD,
Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians
( Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2004), 7. Originally published by P.J. Kennedy in New York, 1922.
3
^
Paul Ehlrich, PhD,
The Population Explosion
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1968), Prologue.
4
^
Ehlrich,
The Population Explosion,
152.
5
^
For a comprehensive catalogue of government-funded educational programs that rely on these presuppositions, see Jacqueline Kasun, PhD,
The War against Population: The Economics and Ideology of World Population Control
(San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1999), 25–34.
6
^
Two new books explore this trend and its history. See Steven Mosher,
Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits
(Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishing, 2008), and Matthew Connelly,
The Struggle to Control World Population
(Harvard University Press/Belknap, 2008).
7
^
See, for example,
Population and the American Future: The Report of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future
(New York: New American Library, 1972), 137, 171, 178, 189–190, cited in Kasun, 219.
8
^
Ben J. Wattenberg,
Fewer: How the New Demography of De-Population Will Shape Our Future
(Chicago: Ivan Dee Publishing, 2004), 5.
9
^
Philip Longman,
The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do about It
(New York: Basic Books, 2004), 12.
10
^
In the award-winning 1950 comedy
Cheaper by the Dozen
, based on the true-life Gilbreth family, Clifton Webb played the efficiency engineer father of twelve. At one point, he sniffles at “those piddly little families with only five or six children.” The scene where the Planned Parenthood lady pays a visit (and is hilariously rebuffed) was, unsurprisingly, cut from the 2003 remake starring Steve Martin.
11
^
Mary Walsh, “Wanted by the Fertility Police,” in
Family Foundations
, a publication of The Couple to Couple League, accessed from
www.ccli.org
. See resources Appendix.
12
^
This does not include oceans and lakes, according to an intensive two-year study by Conservation International. See Paul Rogers, “46 Percent of Earth is Still Wilderness, Researchers Report,”
The Mercury News
, Dec. 4, 2002.
13
^
See
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
for an approximate running tab of the world’s population. Divide this total number into the size of Texas, which is 268,601 square miles (
http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/tx_geography.htm
) and you get 0.27 acres per earthling.
14
^
Dr. Jacqueline R. Kasun, “Too Many People?” in
Envoy Magazine
, May–June 1998, accessible online at
http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/2.3/coverstory.xhtml
.
15
^
LifeSiteNews.com, “Canada in Population Crisis: Seniors to Outnumber Children in a Decade,” December 15, 2005,
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05121504.xhtml
(accessed August, 2007).
16
^
“A Baby Bust Empties Out Japan’s Schools: Shrinking Population Called Greatest National Problem” by Anthony Faiola in
The Washington Post Foreign Service
, March 3, 2005, A01.
17
^
Report from Deutsche Welle, Berlin, November 9, 2006, as reported by Gudrun Schultz in
Lifesite News,
accessed August 2007 from
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06110903.xhtml
.
18
^
United Nations Population Division, “Replacement Migration: Is It a Solution to Declining and Aging Populations?” (2000), cited in Longman, 60.
19
^
Sometimes, real news mimics Onion-style news parodies, e.g., “Russia’s Conception Day: Have a June Baby, Win a Prize,” by Liza Kuznetsova,
The Associated Press,
August 15, 2007.
20
^
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller),
Department of Defense Budget Fiscal Years 2004/2005: Military Personnel Programs (M-1)
(February 2003), 22,
http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2004_m1.pdf
, cited in Longman, 21.
21
^
Julian L. Simon and Roy Gobi, “The Relationship between Population and Economic Growth in LDCs,” in Julian L. Simon,
Population and Development in Poor Countries: Selected Essays
(Princeton University Press, 1992), 191, cited in Kasun,
The War against Population
, 69–70.
22
^
Peter Drucker,
Management Challenges for the 21st Century
(New York: HarperBusiness, 1999), 44.
23
^
Eric R. Pianka, Ph.D., lecture given at the 109th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Lamar University in Beaumont on March 3–5, 2006, as reported in
The Citizen Scientist
, by Forrest Mims III and witnessed by others,
http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_2006/2006-04-07/feature1p/index.xhtml
.
24
^
Interview in
UNESCO Courier
, November, 1991, by Bahgat Elnadi.
25
^
Longman,
The Empty Cradle,
87.
26
^
Jacqueline Kasun, “Overpopulation?,”
LifeIssues.net
,
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/kas/kas_01overpopulation.xhtml
. Then there is the virtually unknown work of Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate, winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, and the “father of the Green Revolution.” His spectacularly successful biotech innovations in wheat and cereal production in India, Pakistan, Africa, Mexico, and elsewhere in the Third World have been credited with saving over a billion lives. See
http://www.normanborlaug.org/
Chapter Nine
Sterilization and Its Discontents
A bruised reed he will not break; and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.
—Isaiah 42:3
Sterilization presents a delicate and difficult pastoral challenge for three groups of people: those who wish to share the teaching of the Church; those who’ve been sterilized and have come to regret it; and those who’ve been sterilized and do not regret it. The sense of finality that attends the procedure creates a mindset that is not well disposed to second-guessing.
You can always toss your condoms, jellies, foams, or diaphragms in the trash, or cancel your Pill prescription, but you can’t wake up one day and de-sterilize yourself when you’ve chosen contraception to the -nth degree. Apart from the option of reversing the sterilization, to be discussed later in this chapter, the quasi-permanent aspect of sterilization can make it very difficult psychologically to admit that a mistake may have been made.
Even if the couple (the sterilized man or woman in the couple) regrets and repents of the procedure—and for whatever reason cannot have the reversal—they may find themselves living in a curious state of limbo in which they continue to “enjoy the fruits of their sin,” in the memorable phrase of the Couple to Couple League founder John Kippley.
This chapter will propose some strategies for resolving this dilemma, review the nature and risks involved with male and female sterilization, discuss the marital frictions associated with these procedures, and end with some questions meant to stimulate important conversations between spouses, and to encourage apologists to think outside the “repent, sinner” box.
Someone may ask why I’d bother treating sterilization in depth. Isn’t it a big guilt trip to dwell on a sincere decision made perhaps long ago? If they can’t do anything about it, what’s the point in tormenting them?
Fair questions.
In refecting on an answer, a Scripture verse said to be a favorite of Pope John Paul II came to mind: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” ( Jn. 8:32). What can be “done about it” is precisely the theme of this chapter. No one loses his or her right to the truth just because of a mistake made or a sin committed. Ultimately—for every one of us—the truth is a freeing reality, because it
is
reality. Lies enslave. Half-truths hobble.
None of this is about finger-pointing. Most people who chose sterilization did what they thought was the right thing to do, and did it without malice toward the Church. They didn’t wake up in the morning and ask themselves what’s the best way to offend God or defy the Church. Indeed, many are active in parish life. In the main, they were never told otherwise about sterilization, or a Church representative validated their decision, or they had the procedure before they became Catholic.
The combination of silence from the pulpit and the great acceptance of sterilization fostered by society (by the medical profession in particular)
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give it a very attractive luster. Minus the support of knowledgeable Catholic friends and family, the seeming benefits of sterilization—its one-shot-andyou’re-done convenience, its permanence, and its user effectiveness—have made it the most popular form of contraception.
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Well-intentioned bromides provide added incentive and validation (“It’s okay as long as you have good intentions.” … “Vatican II says we must follow our conscience.” … “God understands our weaknesses.” … “You’ve already been generous enough by having X number of kids.”).
It’s a simple fact: Most people simply have never heard a rational explanation why sterilization could be immoral.
Sterilization refers to any surgical procedure that is intended to deliberately and permanently render a man or a woman infertile. The male version is better known as a vasectomy. In a vasectomy, the vasa deferentia (two thin tubes that connect the testes to the rest of the reproductive system), are cut and then cauterized or sutured. The sperm become trapped in the testes and are unable to complete their journey toward the ovum, and are then broken down and absorbed into the blood vessels and lymph tissues of the man’s body. The body is thus “auto-immune,” or allergic to itself. This happens about eighty-eight percent of the time within six months.
The first modern attempts at sterilization had nothing to do with improving family life, advancing healthcare technology, or even with medical care itself. It was done as part of prison experimentations between the 1890s to early 1900s when sterilizing jailed sexual predators became a popular alternative to full castration (removal of the testes).
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Not long after, men from elite social circles had vasectomies on the mistaken view that some kind of “rejuvenation” would result from the new presence of sperm cells in the body.
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