Assistance is available in presenting these two chapters. The notes below were compiled by wonderful
pro-life med-student, Kyle Beiter. For more help with these chapters please contact:
James & Nicole Hahn - 740-603-0195 - jimandnicole@catholicfamilies.net
Pertaining to Chapter 6…
The Morality of Contraception
Sources of Morality of a Human Act:
1) object: what we choose to do
2) end: ulterior reason for acting
3) circumstances
For an action to be moral, all 3 of these factors must
be in accord with moral goodness
Authentic Worldview
1) We are each very limited, born into a certain culture, time, & place
- we tend to assume our own culture’s values
2) We have free will, but we don’t have the freedom to choose the consequences
- NOT “what’s right for me is right for me, and you for you” (relativism)
- (arbitrary fufilment) ever see an alcoholic fufilled?, etc.
- we always do what we think is good for us, but we’re often wrong
- it’s good to have a healthy suspicion of our appetites
- Fr. Norris Clarke story (NYC taxi driver)
- St. Augustine - “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you”
3) God made us, knows how we work, and desires our fulfillment. He has already determined
what’s right and wrong for us, and that he is our final fulfillment
- diesel fuel in a car example
“God is only offended by us when we do something contrary to our own good.” - St. Thomas Aquinas
“I came that they might have life and have it to the full.” Jn 10:10
“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord. Plans for your welfare, not for woe!
Plans to give you a future full of hope.” Jer 29:11
“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made. The serpent asked
the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered
the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the
middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent
said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No. God knows well that the moment you eat of it your
eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.”
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may
have eternal life.” Jn 3:16
Church’s Teaching:
- From the earliest days of the Church, contraception was addressed:
Clement of Alexandria (d 215): “Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the
seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted... To have coitus other than
to procreate children is to do injury to nature.” (AD 191)
1
John Chrysostom (d 407): “Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit, where
there are medicines of sterility, where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain
only a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well... Indeed, it is something worse than murder, and I do
no know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you
condemn the gift of God and fight with his [natural] laws? The matter still seems indifferent to many men even to many men having wives.” (AD 391)
St. Augustine: “I am supposing, then, although you are not lying [with your wife] for the sake of
procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an
evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any
reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame.” (AD 419)
Others: Hippolytus, Jerome, Council of Nicaea I, etc.
Biblical Teaching:
Gn 1:27-28: “God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him; male and female he created
them. God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.’”
Gn 38:8-10: “Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform your duty as a brotherin-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.’ And Onan knew that the offspring would not be his;
so it came about that when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, in order not to
give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, so He took his life
also.”
Others: Genesis 9:1, Malachi 2:14-15, 1 Timothy 2:15, Exodus 23:25-26, Deuteronomy 7:13-14 Psalm 127,
Psalm 128 (Children and fertility are a blessing from God and a great good; sterility is seen as something to
be avoided and feared)
Heritage of Contraception:
- Definition: choosing to do something prior to, during, or after the act of sexual intercourse to
impede procreation
- Not a new phenomenon: descriptions from 2700 BC China, 1850 BC Egypt
- Lambeth Conference (1930): the Anglican Church is the first Christian denomination to approve
of contraception in marriage
- Sentiment regarding contraception in 19th / early 20th century...
“Contraception is the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no
atonement.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
“The abandonment of the reproductive function is the common feature of all sexual perversions. We
actually describe a sexual activity as perverse if it has given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the
attainment of pleasure as an aim independent of it.” (Sigmund Freud)
“Contraceptive methods are like putting a premium on vice: they make men and women reckless. Nature is
relentless and will have full revenge for any such violation of her laws. If contraceptive methods become
the order of the day, nothing but moral degradation can be the result. As it is, man has sufficiently degraded
woman for his lust, and contraception, not matter how well meaning the advocates may be, will still further
degrade her.” (Ghandi)
“By accepting contraception, the world is trying to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The
experiment will fail, but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse. Meanwhile, redeeming the time so
that the faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us, to renew and rebuild civilization and
save the world from suicide.” (TS Eliot)
2
- Margaret Sanger (1883-1966):
- one of the foremost proponents of contraception
- established a research bureau which financed the development of the birth control pill
- adhered to a eugenic philosophy
“[The philanthropists who give free maternity care] encourage the healthier and more normal
sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminant fecundity of others;
which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of
decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the
world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant.” (Margaret Sanger, The Pivot of
Civilization, 1922)
- Sanger was alarmed at the increasing numbers of immigrants to the United States and sought
to spread birth control and sterilization to minorities and the poor
- Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in 1942 (now America’s largest abortion provider)
- her views are in vogue today, although glossed over with political correctness
- the policies of the US and the UN toward poorer nations
- health care policies in America - women routinely offered (and expected) to use
contraception after their pregnancies (especially minorities)
“Miss Key’s [Swedish feminist] book gave Sanger the philosophy that the ‘inner self should be
allowed full freedom of expression and development’ and only individual sexual satisfaction, not law or
tradition, could make marriage holy; marriages that were not sexually satisfying for the woman should
end in divorce, since physical love was a higher imperative than mere law.” (Drogin, Margaret Sanger,
Father of Modern Society, 1989)
1) Sanger’s reactionary views are a testemony to the domination and exploitation of
women throughout much of human history
2) It was hoped that contraception would improve the lives of women, improve
marriages, and reduce abortions
3) Sanger’s sentiments are a development of the dualistic philosophy which has its roots
in the Manacheaen heresy and which lie at the base of the contraceptive mentality
Dualism
- Manichaean heresy: we must strive to free our spirits from our bodies through ascetic
practices; the body is the source of all evil
- fosters a dualistic concept of personhood: I am my spirit (or my consciousness) and my
body is something distinct from me
- this anthropology regards the body as an instrument to serve the person; a good for the
person insofar as it is a necessary condition for goods and values being consciously
experienced
- contraception is seen as the exercise of intelligent human dominion over nature (the body
and human sexuality)
- thus, human biological fertility is seen as something subhuman and subpersonal - it ought
to be brought into the human sphere and regulated (however, isn’t human sexuality already human
to begin with? How are we making it “more human” by using contraception?)
- we can thus liberate the personal and human purposes of sexuality and of genital intercourse
from the tyranny of biology
LOTS OF PRESSURE IN THE 1960’S TO CHANGE CHURCH’S TEACHINGS!!
Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (1968):
3
“In conformity with these landmarks in the human and Christian vision of marriage, we must once again
declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed
and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as licit mans of
regulating birth. Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is
direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly
excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the
development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation
impossible.”
“Responsible individuals will quickly see the truth of the Church’s teaching [about contraception], if they
consider what consequences will follow from the methods of contraception and the reasons given for the use
of contraception. They should first consider how easy it will be [for many] to justify behavior leading to
marital infidelity or to a gradual weakening in the discipline of morals. Not much experience is needed to
understand human weakness and to comprehend that human beings, especially the young, are so susceptible
to temptation that they need to be encouraged to keep the moral law. It is wrong to make it easy for them to
violate this law. Indeed, it is to be feared that husbands who become accustomed to contraceptive practices
will lose respect for their wives. They may come to disregard their wives’ psychological and physical
equilibrium and use their wives as instruments for serving their own desires. Consequently, they will no
longer view their wives as companions who should be treated with attentiveness and love.”
Who will prevent public authorities from favoring what they believe to be the most effective contraceptive
methods and from mandating that everyone must use them, whenever they consider it necessary? And
clearly it will come about that Men who desire to avoid the difficulties that are part of the divine law,
difficulties that individuals, families, or society may experience, will hand over to the will of the public
authorities the power of interfering in the most exclusive and intimate mission of spouses.”
Dualism also encourages homosexuality, abortion, and euthanasia
- homosexuality: “what’s wrong with two people who love each other?” - objective order of body?
- if a person is not really his or her own body, then the destruction of the life of the body is
not directly and in itself an attack on a value intrinsic to the human person
- “The lives of the unborn, the lives of those not fully in possession of themselves - the
hopelessly insane and the ‘vegetating’ senile - and the lives of those who no longer can engage
in praxis or problem solving, become lives no longer meaningful, no longer valuable, no longer
inviolable.” (Grisez)
- chemical birth control can cause abortions (5-20% breakthrough ovulation rate from the pill)
- we’ve lost respect for the beginnings of human life! stem cell research, abortion, IVF
Theology of the Body:
- a collection of Pope John Paul II’s Wednesday Audiences examining the
human body as a reflection of God; an in-depth exegesis of Creation; explores the “nuptial”
meaning of the body in its femininity and masculinity
- Christ’s love for the Church is total, faithful, fruitful, and life-giving
Ephesians 5 “Wives should be submissive to their husbands as if to the Lord because the husband is head
of his wife just as Christ is head of his body the church, as well as its savior. As the church submits to
Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved
the church. He gave himself up for her to make her holy, purifying her in the bath of water by the power of
the word, to present to himself a glorious church, holy and immaculate... For this reason a man shall leave
his father and mother, and shall cling to his wife, and the two shall be made into one. This is a great
foreshadowing; I mean that it refers to Christ and the Church.”
- “Honey, I don’t like your fertility - let’s destroy it!” What else will the man destroy?
- Woman: but I want to use BCP (she’s been duped by society into thinking she should be like
4
men)
- Man: but I’ll use a condom for my wife
- Purpose of eating / purpose of sex analogy
- purpose of speaking / lying
- gluttony
- Onan!
Unitive vs. Procreative meanings
- the Church teaches we cannot separate these aspects of sexuality
- contraception severs the procreative and unitive meanings; both are now left to wander aimlessly
- all kinds of sexual unions now accepted: homosexuality, fornication, etc.
- we are exploring many different technologies to bear children: stem cells, artificial
insemination...
- contraception is the gateway to abortion
- Pope John Paul II (Gospel of Life):
“It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective
remedy against abortion. The Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because she
obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception. When looked at carefully, this
objection is clearly unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the
subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values inherent in the “contraceptive mentality” which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the proabortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church’s teaching on contraception is rejected.
Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion are specifically different evils: the
former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter
destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is
opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment “you shall not kill.”
But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often
closely connected, as fruits of the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion
are practiced under the pressure of real-life difficulties, which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving
to observe God’s law fully. Still, in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic
mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality and they imply a self-centered concept of
freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfillment. The life which could result from
a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs and abortion becomes the only
possible decisive response to failed contraception.
The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice of contraception and that of
abortion is becoming increasingly obvious. It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development
of chemical products, intrauterine devices, and vaccines which, distributed with the same ease a
contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in the very early stages of the development of the life of the new
human being.
EXPLAIN ABORTIFACIENT MECHANISM OF BCP
Contraception Vs. NFP
How many people think that the Catholic Church is against birth control?
How is contraception different from NFP? After all, the people who use both of them want the
same thing - to not have children.
ACT/INENT/CIRCUMSTANCE
5
Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (10): “If we look further to physical, economic, psychological, and social conditions,
responsible parenthood is exercised by those who, guided by prudent consideration and generosity, elect to accept
many children. Those are also to be considered responsible who, for serious reasons and with due respect for moral
precepts, decide not to have another child for a definite or an indefinite amount of time.”
Natural Family Planning is in no way contraceptive; the choice to abstain from a fertile act of
intercourse is completely different from the willful choice to sterilize a fertile act of intercourse.
Both couples may have the same end in mind - to avoid pregnancy. However, their means are very
different. (SCHOOL ANALOGY)
Remember, contraception is not a form of sexual intercourse. It is an action in addition to sexual
intercourse.
Pertaining to Chapter 7…
Part II - Morality of Artificial Reproductive Technologies
- Donum Vitae (Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Human
Procreation) - Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1987
- The procreation of human life must be the fruit of marriage and the marital act
1) inseparable union, willed by God, of the unitive and procreative aspects
2) the language of the body
3) obligation to regard a child as a person and never as a product
- Questions to keep in mind:
- is a child a right or a person? / are we the masters of human life? / is a child a gift from God?
- can a gift be demanded?
Philosophical thoughts:
- 2 modes of human activity
- transitive activity (making) - interest centers on the product made; those that do not live
up to certain standards are frequently discarded; governed by rules of art
- immanent activity (doing) - interest centers on the agent - if the action is morally good, it
perfects the agent - ie, the action “makes” them to be the kind of person they are
- many human actions have both components (I am producing something, and it is affect)
- the marital act is not an act of making or producing; it is an immanent act
- spouses don’t make love or babies, they give themselves to one another
- any life coming out of their union is begotten, not made
- husbands and wives are not “making” babies, they are giving themselves totally to one
another; they are “begetting” or “procreating”, they are not “producing” or “making”
- Why can’t a married couple have recourse to IVF/Art. Insem. if they are otherwise
infertile?
- this reduces the child to a product
- transitive activity: husband produces sperm; wife stimulated to produce several ova
- sperm are then washed and capacitated by a technician to function better
- IVF: create embryos in a lab dish, extra are made and frozen
- 2 to 4 are introduced to increase the odds that at least one will implant
- if too many embryos successfully implant - “pregnancy reduction”
6
- common to monitor the development of life both before and after transfer - if
serious defects are found, abortion is recommended
- logic of manufacturing: use the most efficient, cost-effective, time-saving means to
deliver
the desired product under good quality controls
Theological reasons - Trinity
- Jesus is “begotten, not made” eternally from the Father (Nicean Creed, anybody?)
- He is not a product of the Father’s will or made by the Father
- He is one in being with the Father; of the same personal dignity as the Father
- He is not inferior to the Father or subordinate in being to the Father
- We are made in the image of God!
- human persons ought to be “begotten, not made”
- we are one in nature with our parents, not subordinate in dignity or being to them
- this dignity is respected only when we are begotten, not if we are produced
- nor is it respected with fornication, adultery, or spousal abuse
- Please: notice I am not saying that a child conceived out of artificial means, or
fornication,
etc. HAS any less dignity than one conceived in marriage or that the parents love less, I
am saying that the child has not been respected properly!
- Married couples do have a right to use legitimate therapies that assist the marital act (without
replacing it)
- the marital act must be the principle cause of the conception of the child
- Donum Vitae: “The human person must be accepted in his parents’ act of union and love; the
generation of a child must therefore be the fruit of that mutual giving which is realized in the
conjugal act wherein the spouses cooperate as servants and not as masters in the work of the
Creator who is love.”
- enhancing mucus, charting, etc. (Good ethics leads to good medicine - PPVI center / Hilgers)
Resources:
Adams, JT. Called to Give Life: A Sourcebook on the Blessings of Children and the Harms of
Contraception. (One More Soul, 2003)
Catechism of the Catholic Church. (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, 1994)
Drogin, E. Margaret Sanger - Father of Modern Society. (CUL Publications, 1989)
May, WE. Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life. (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2000)
Pope John Paul II. Theology of the Body. (Pauline Books, 1997)
Smith, J. (ed) Why Humanae Vitae was Right: A Reader. (Ignatius Press, 1993)
West, C. A Crash Course in Theology of the Body: Naked Without Shame. (The GIFT
Foudation, 2002)
Wojtyla, K. Love and Responsibility. (Ignatius Press, 1993)
7