Vol. 1, No. 1 2012
A couple weeks ago, a woman went to her doctor. “Doctor,” she said, “I have a perfectly functioning circulatory system.” “That’s good,” the doctor replied. “Well,” she said, “I was wondering if you could give me a drug to make it stop functioning the way that it is supposed to.” “That’s crazy!” the doctor replied. “Why would I give you something to make your circulatory system stop functioning well?” “Ok,” the woman replied, “but how about my respiratory system. It seems to be working fine. Could you give me something to mess it up?” The doctor was shocked. “Of course not! No doctor in their right mind would intentionally give you a drug to mess up a healthy respiratory system.” “Well, how about my reproductive system?” asked the woman. “Can you give me something to make it stop functioning the way that it is supposed to?” “Certainly,” the doctor replied. “We have all kinds of medicines to do that.”
Now, obviously this dialogue did not really happen. And yet, what it represents is a reality. Millions of women are given contraceptive drugs and devices by their doctors, things whose sole purpose is to prevent her reproductive system from working naturally. The Catholic Church has spoken out strongly and continuously against contraception. There are many who say that the Church should change her views and “get with the times.” But she continues to say that contraception is immoral.
The Church says that contraception is immoral for many reasons. Perhaps the simplest reason is that contraception is bad medicine. As we hear in Genesis, God created the human body and all of its many parts and systems. The body is a beautiful masterpiece, lovingly created by God. The purpose of medicine is to treat something that has gone wrong, to return the body to health, as God intended it. As my introductory dialogue highlighted, contraception is the only form of medicine that is aimed at disrupting one of these systems that God created. Rather than heal, contraception aims to destroy. ...
The full article is available in the printed subscriptions or as individual digital copies. Simply e-mail voxchristi@my.kenrick.edu if interested.
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