Church grabs chance to attack birth control pill

[Necuno]

Church grabs chance to attack birth control pill

Roman Catholic leaders have pounced on a "confession" by one of the inventors of the birth control pill who has said the contraceptive he helped create was responsible for a "demographic catastrophe".

In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world's Roman Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought "devastating ecological effects" by releasing into the environment "tons of hormones" that had impaired male fertility.

The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by 85-year-old Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step towards the earliest oral contraceptive pill.

Djerassi outlined the "horror scenario" that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction". He said: "This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete."

He described families who had decided against reproduction as "wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it".

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an "epidemic" far worse -- but given less attention -- than obesity.

Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an "intelligent immigration policy".

The head of Austria's Catholics, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, told an interviewer that the Vatican had forecast 40 years ago that the pill would lead to a dramatic fall in the birth rate in the West. "Somebody above suspicion like Carl Djerassi ... is saying that each family has to produce three children to maintain population levels, but we're far away from that."

Schönborn told Austrian TV that when he first read Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical condemning artificial contraception he viewed it negatively as a "cold shower". But he said he had altered his views as, over time, it had proved "prophetic".



Writing for the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, José María Simón, said research from his association also showed the pill "worked in many cases with a genuinely ... abortive effect".

Angelo Bonelli, of the Italian Green party, said it was the first he had heard of a link between the pill and environmental pollution. The worst of poisons were to be found in the water supply. "It strikes me as idiosyncratic to be worried about this."

A leading gynaecologist and member of the New York Academy of Science, professor Gian Benedetto Melis, called Simón's claims "science fiction", saying that the pill blocked ovulation only. - guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2009

...the pill is definitely not natural.

 

[rwenzori]

Lol - quite bizarre moral opinions there! In SA though, some "want to enjoy their [-]schnitzels[/-] boerewors".

 

[supersunbird]

Well, who will pay for all the kids that are had if there was no pill and whatever? The church?

 

[syntax]

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an "epidemic" far worse -- but given less attention -- than obesity.

Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an "intelligent immigration policy"

this is a joke? A fall in birth rate is an epidemic? I thought it was responsible to not have tons of kids runnng around when everything is in recession and over population is a real threat. A vagina is not a clown car, promotion of ideas like this are the problem...

 

[Slaine73]

Lol - quite bizarre moral opinions there! In SA though, some "want to enjoy their [-]schnitzels[/-] boerewors".

Is that now "boerewors" or "country sausages"?

 

[Slootvreter]

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an "epidemic" far worse -- but given less attention -- than obesity.

Is this a problem here in ZA? Somehow I doubt that.

 

[alloytoo]

Church grabs chance to attack birth control pill



...the pill is definitely not natural.

No it's not, but some folks in these Churches provide us with a bloody good reason to use it.

 

[Slaine73]

Is this a problem here in ZA? Somehow I doubt that.

I doubt that problem is anywhere in Africa...

 

[Pitbull]

Strange that this becomes a Church issue. I for one am strangly against the pill but it's more related to health issues because of the pill than any thing else

And no I'm not posting this at the OP just the fact that the Church themselves got involved, people should be smarter than that. Why does a Church have to tell them it's wrong

 

[PeterCH]

Population decline is a serious problem in Europe, Korea and Japan, while
the one-child-only-family in China is leading to that country's imminent population time bomb.

I posted numerous articles on this on MyBB, just google for it.

 

[Slaine73]

In the Netherlands there have been a negative population growth now for quite some time already....

 

[Slootvreter]

Population decline is a serious problem in Europe, Korea and Japan, while
the one-child-only-family in China is leading to that country's imminent population time bomb.

I posted numerous articles on this on MyBB, just google for it.

That is true.

 

[PeterCH]

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=146128&highlight=europe+population

 

[PeterCH]

http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cach...+population+stratfor&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=za

This one is very interesting.

The European Union is in dire straits when it comes to demographics. The bloc is suffering from a total fertility rate of 1.5 births per woman, which is considerably below what is considered the necessary “replacement rate” (estimated at 2.1 births per woman). Even if Europe improves its birth rate, the lag effects of the current low birth rate could be felt for years after the rate improves.

Compounding the issue, this low fertility rate is combined with an ever-increasing life expectancy that contributes to a greater number of older people. Therefore, even though most European countries have now stabilized their birth rates (and in some cases even slightly improved them), the “death rate” continues to fall at an accelerating rate. In short, there are more old people in Europe who keep living longer. For example, Italy currently has an old age dependency ratio (the percentage of the elderly more than 65 years old as a percentage of the working age population) of around 26 percent, but will see it climb to nearly 70 percent by 2045.

 

[supersunbird]

So what's the solution?

 

[PeterCH]

So what's the solution?

For the EU?

Improve fertility really quickly OR allow massive immigration, otherwise
those groups who have high fertility rates in Europe will oust the others
ultimately - eg Muslim immigrants in France.

 

[supersunbird]

For the EU?

Improve fertility really quickly OR allow massive immigration, otherwise
those groups who have high fertility rates in Europe will oust the others
ultimately - eg Muslim immigrants in France.

Improve fertility or decrease birthcontrol being used and have more kids thus being born? And who pays for those kids?

 

[Slootvreter]

Improve fertility or decrease birthcontrol being used and have more kids thus being born? And who pays for those kids?

If financial position is indeed the reason why they are not having children, why can't we have some of that common sense here in ZA?

 

[rwenzori]

For the EU?

Improve fertility really quickly OR allow massive immigration, otherwise
those groups who have high fertility rates in Europe will oust the others
ultimately - eg Muslim immigrants in France.

And that's bad?

 

[Slootvreter]

And that's bad?

Muslim immigrants from France come from Africa I believe...