Birth Control

rth contCatholic perspectives on population issues (e.g. abortion, artificial insemination, birth control). Why does the church hold certain positions? What impact do those positions have? You might offer some sort of critique, or some sort of defense or attack, of Church positions. (You are free to take whatever positions you want, but I expect serious research and facts to be backing up your claims.)

According to the ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW OF POPULATION CONTROL by NORMAN ST. JOHN-STEVAS, in the popular mind the Roman Catholic Church is widely identified with opposition to population-control measures and with repression of those who practice them or advocate their use. Like most generalizations, however, this one contains elements of both truth and distortion, and the distinction can be discerned only if one apprehends the Roman Catholic value system apart from the particular means that may be chosen to implement it. It is to an elucidation of this distinction that this article has been directed.

The Roman Catholic Church has always condemned contraception and, despite the changed attitude of other churches, maintains its traditional position. The Church Fathers, and later St. Thomas Aquinas, held contraception to be sinful and contrary to scriptural teaching. Thus, St. Augustine declares that "intercourse even with one's legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of the offspring is prevented.

The Roman Catholic natural law tradition accepts as self-evident that the primary purpose of sexual intercourse is procreation and relegates as secondary such ends as fostering the mutual love of the spouses and allaying concupiscence. This conclusion is based on two propositions-that man by the use of his reason can discover God's purpose in the universe, and that God makes known his purpose by certain "given"...