As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Humane Vitae even after all this time, the controversy around the document seems to have remained unsettled. Even a simple mention of the topic is enough to cause a brawl among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The document is considered by some as an imposition of Church’s tyranny, ruling the intimate lives of humans and forbidding sexual freedom and autonomy. However, a closer look at the text with all its reasoning and predictions reveals truths that are too accurate to be overlooked or not taken seriously.
Before we begin to look into the predictions, it is important to understand the most fundamental point. The document did not call for unrestricted birth or that every sexual act should end in pregnancy. It reaffirmed the truth that unitive and procreative aspects of marriage shall not be broken and that conjugal love be open to life.
What did the Church Predict?
- Breakdown of Marriage and Family
“Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards” (Humane Vitae 17). “If they further reflect, they must also recognize that an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage(Humane Vitae 13)
- Teen pregnancy, abortion, STDs, and the sexualizing of children
“.. And especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law.” (Humane Vitae 17)
- Objectification and abuse of women
“Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.” (Humane Vitae 17)
- Population Control and Eugenics
“Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone.” (Humane Vitae 17)
Proof from present day
Systematic attacks on human life and dignity have already begun. The year of 1968 saw the overwhelming welcome for Paul Elrich’s Population Bomb. The Malthusian text that advocated for state sponsored regulation of birth. Countries which welcomed life unconditionally were categorized as ‘problematic breeders’ who pose threat to the civilized west. Supporters of eugenics took control of governments to impose ‘population control’. Nations suffered greatly one by one including Japan, South Korea, China, India and now Africa. China’s brutal one child policy is the perfect example of prediction no.4.
The mounting lawsuits proven on Essure, the vaccination scandal of Kenya, the undeniable abortion and breast cancer epidemic, boy friends deserting their female partners on accounts of pregnancy and pressuring them for abortion are all examples of prediction no.3.
Nations began legitimizing the murder of children in the womb. Premarital sex has been normalized. Casual relationships replaced marital union. Schools distributed condoms. All this led to an increase in teen pregnancy, single parent household, missing father syndrome, marital infidelity and divorce resulting in the destruction of the institution of the family.
Once marriage was broken, families began to fall apart. Once family fell apart then, Human life which is cradled within that family became vulnerable to the attacks from outside. When couples began to ‘use’ each other and found no harm in it, institutions and enterprises from outside began to ‘use’ human life as a commodity. A person therefore began to be treated as an object.
Contraception thus opened doors to abortions, artificial reproduction, embryo freezing, egg harvesting, embryo harvesting for experimentation, embryo stem cell, euthanasia, assisted suicide, commercial surrogacy, cloning and so on.
It is therefore practically impossible to neatly compartmentalize issues. Abortion helps in abetting rapists and traffickers, surrogacy thrives in exploitation of poverty, artificial reproduction gives rise of abuse of children and their natural right to parents and divorce enhances poverty of a society. All are interconnected. The primary reason behind the abuse of any kind and exploitation of any person is the fundamental attitude where one views the human being as a ‘person’ or as an ‘object’. And this attitudinal shift in culture began with the battle to use contraception within marriage.
Looking at the present social, political, cultural and moral climate in comparison with the period before 1968 it is impossible to take Humane Vitae lightly. The predictions have proven to be true.
Note : This is a series of blog. The first part being an introduction to Humane Vitae, second part on predictions of document and how it came true after 50 years and third part concerning bio ethical challenges and application of Humane Vitae.
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