The National Catholic Bioethics Center

Beginning of Life IssuesArchdiocese of Vancouver

October 11, 2008

Catholic Teaching regarding Contraception,Sterilization

and Abortion

John M. Haas, Ph.D., S.T.L.

The Nature of Immorality

“God is offended by us only when we act against our own good.”

St. Thomas AquinasSumma Contra Gentiles

“Sin is an offense against reason, truth and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and

neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church

# 1849

PharmakeiaPharmakeia

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, ‘pharmakeia’. . .”

Galatians 5:19, 20

History of Recent Church History of Recent Church Teaching on ContraceptionTeaching on Contraception

•• Dec 31, 1930 Dec 31, 1930 Pius XI. Pius XI. CastiCasti ConnubiiConnubii..

"Any use whatever of marriage, in the exercise of which the act by human effort is deprived of its natural power of procreating life, violates the law of God and nature, and those who do such a thing are stained by a grave and mortal flaw."

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19301930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 196819681968

•• 19531953 Development of Development of progestogenprogestogen pillpillwhich prevented ovulation.

•• June , 1958June , 1958 - Louis Janssens, moral theologian, argued in favor of the pill using "correcting defect of nature" argument.

HistoryHistory (continued)

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1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 19531953 ––– 19581958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 196819681968

•• Sep 12Sep 12 , , 1958 1958 Pius XII.Pius XII.Address to Society of Hematology

HistoryHistory (continued)

"Sterilization is direct when it is effected by an action which seeks as means or end to render procreation impossible, whether the effect is permanent, as in ligature of the oviducts or spermatic ducts, or temporary, as in the use of anovulant pills."

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1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 19581958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 196819681968

HistoryHistory (continued)

19631963 Pope John XXIII

Establishes the Pontifical Study Commission on Family, Population and Birth Problems.

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1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 19631963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 196819681968

HistoryHistory (continued)

•• Dec 7, 1965Dec 7, 1965 Vatican II issues Gaudium et Spes

"When it is a question of harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, it is not enough to take only the good intention and the evaluation of motives into account; objective criteria must be used, criteria drawn from the nature of the human person and human action, criteria which respect the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love; …

8 / 8 /

1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 19651965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 196819681968

HistoryHistory (continued)

…all this is possible only if the virtue of married chastity is seriously practiced. In questions of birth regulation the sons of the Church, faithful to these principles, are forbidden to use methods disapproved of by the teaching authority of the Church in its interpretation of the divine law.” No. 51

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Gaudium et Spes (continued)

1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 19651965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 196819681968

HistoryHistory (continued)

•• Oct 29,Oct 29, 1966 1966 Paul VI.Paul VI.Address to the Italian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"It cannot be considered not binding as if the magisterium of the Church were in a state of doubt at the present time, whereas it is rather in a moment of study and reflection concerning matters which have been put before it as worthy of the most attentive consideration."

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1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 19661966 ––– 196819681968

HistoryHistory (continued)

•• 19661966It becomes public knowledge that a majority of the Study Commission favors changing the Church's teaching on contraception.

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1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 19661966 ––– 196819681968

HistoryHistory (continued)

•• July 25,July 25, 1968 1968 Paul VI.Paul VI.Humanae vitae.

(No. 12)(No. 12)

"... the inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning."

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1930 1930 1930 ––– 195119511951 ––– 1953 1953 1953 ––– 1958 1958 1958 ––– 1963 1963 1963 ––– 1965 1965 1965 ––– 1966 1966 1966 ––– 19681968

Pope John Paul II Reaffirms Teaching

• Catechesis on the Theology of the Body

• Familiaris Consortio

• Evangelium Vitae

Natural Law and Laws of Nature

• The eternal law is the mind of God ordering all things to their created ends. (The Nuptial Meaning of the Body)

• The natural law is the rational creature’s conscious participation in the eternal law.

• “Laws” of nature are laws analogously since they are not consciously obeyed.

Church’s Teaching Reasonable

• Reasonable human behavior is to act on behalf of ends perceived as goods.

• “Ends” are the principles of human activity.• “Ends” make sense of given act, indeed, make

it possible.• To act in accord with the natural law is to act

reasonably.

Ends of Marriage

• The procreative good, the child.

• Friendship or mutual support.

• Remedy of concupiscence (sexual pleasure)

Never Act Against a Good

While we are under no obligation to realize all the goods of which we are capable, we are obliged never to act against a good as though it were an evil.

Contra-ception

• Contraception always entails an act other than the conjugal act which is directed expressly against the realization of the procreative good inherent in the act in which one has freely chosen to engage.

• Treats a good as though it were an evil.

• Against the law in many states until 1967.

• Likened to a venereal disease.

• Pregnancy “prophylaxis”.

Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis

“It is a characteristic common to all the (sexual) perversions that in them reproduction as an aim is put aside. This is actually the criterion by which we judge whether a sexual activity is perverse – if it departs from reproduction in its aims and pursues the attainment of gratification independently.”

Principle of Double Effect

When we are going to posit an action and we see that it will have two effects, one good and one bad, may we still go ahead and

perform the act?

Double Effect

1. Act itself must be good.2. One only intends the good.3. The evil is never the means to the good.4. There is a proportionately grave reason for

positing the act.

SterilizationSterilization

Directive 53Directive 53 ““Direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution. Procedures that induce sterility are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology and a simpler treatment is not available.”

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

“. . . Notwithstanding any subjectively right intention of those whose actions are prompted by the care or prevention of physical or mental illness which is foreseen or feared as a result of pregnancy, such sterilization remains absolutely forbidden according to the doctrine of the Church.”

Quaecumquae, 1975

Question: Question: Why is sterilization always

wrong but killing is not always wrong according to Catholic

teaching?

WRONG QUESTION!WRONG QUESTION!

Proper Question:Proper Question:

Why is contraception always wrong and murder always wrong?

Why is indirect sterilization and indirect killing sometimes

permissible?

OR

Correct answer to Correct answer to the correct question:the correct question:

It could be selfIt could be self-- defense in both defense in both

cases.cases.

Natural Family Planning

• Better termed Moral Family Planning• Based on periodic abstinence• Awareness of the signs of fertility in the

woman• If there are grave reasons to avoid having a

child, relations are avoided during fertile period

• If a child desired, relations during fertile period

Link between Contraception and Abortion

St. AugustineSt. Augustine “Of Marriage and Concupiscence”

“(The licentious cruelty of the marital couple) or their cruel licentiousness sometimes goes to such lengths as to procure sterilizing poisons, and if these are unavailing, in some way to stifle within the womb and eject the fetus that has been conceived. They want their offspring to die before it comes to life, or, if it is already living in the womb, to perish before it is born.”

Is [birth control] an abortion?Is [birth control] an abortion?

“Definitely not. An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it. Birth control merely postpones the beginning of life.”

Planned ParenthoodPlanned ParenthoodPlan Your Children for Health and Happiness

1968

AbortionAbortion“(that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability or the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted. Every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the termination of pregnancy before viability is an abortion, which, in its moral context, includes the interval between conception and implantation of the embryo. Catholic health care services are not to provide abortion services, even based upon the principle of material cooperation.” Directive 45

Indirect AbortionIndirect Abortion

Directive 47Directive 47 ““Operations, treatments, and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.”

conclusion

The National CatholicBioethics Center

Moral Authority of the ChurchMoral Authority of the Church"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys . . . infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and

teacher of all the faithful . . . he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to

faith or morals. For that reason his definitions are rightly said to be irreformable

by their very nature and not by reason of the assent of the Church, inasmuch as they were made with the assistance of the Holy

Spirit promised to him in the person of blessed Peter himself." More

"Although the bishops, taken individually, do not enjoy the privilege of infallibility, they do, however,

proclaim infallibly the doctrine of Christ on the following conditions: namely, when, even though

dispersed throughout the world but preserving for all that amongst themselves and with Peter's successor

the bond of communion, in their authoritative teaching concerning matters of faith and morals, they

are in agreement that a particular teaching is to be held definitively and absolutely. This is still more

clearly the case when, assembled in an ecumenical council, they are, for the universal Church, teachers of and judges in matters of faith and morals, whose

decisions must be adhered to with the loyal and obedient assent of faith.“!Lumen Lumen GentiumGentium, 25, 25