Zika tests Catholic position on birth control

[jpak]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Zika-infected mosquitoes aren't just causing medical problems, they're creating a theological conundrum for the Roman Catholic Church, according to priests and other experts.

The church has long forbidden nearly every form of birth control, but health officials in some Latin American countries have advised women not to get pregnant, because the virus has been linked to an incurable and often devastating neurological birth defect.

"I've never seen this advice before, and when you hear it, you think, 'What are the bishops going to do?'" said the Rev. John Paris, a bioethicist and Catholic priest at Boston College.

"It's going to present a lot of problems for the bishops to sort out," echoed Daniel Ramirez, an assistant professor of history and American culture at the University of Michigan and an expert on Latin American religious culture.

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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/03/health/zika-tests-catholic-position-on-birth-control/

[randys1]

1. Mind numbingly dumb for the church to still take this position on birth control.

IF this position is consistent with most religions, then religions may well be the reason the human race goes extinct.

While this particular virus may not do the trick, one will, someday.

[blackspade]

2. Reality catches up to a Bronze age religion...

[secondwind]

19. you took the words out of my mouth.

[JudyM]

3. It's not just a birth control issue, it's also a morning-after pill and abortion issue.

There's a company that's now sending post-conception pills to women in developing countries.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/zika-virus-dutch-ngo-offers-free-abortion-pills-online-women-infected-zika-1541537

And in the US, where Zika has already arrived, will the anti-abortion crowd take the position that women should sustain their pregnancies through term even if they've been exposed to Zika? It's not even a life of the mother/baby issue, it's squarely a quality of life issue.

Early-term abortions are going to increase and fire that crowd up to its frothiest point. I hope the graphic nature of the choice they will be hoping to impose on women will be the beginning of the end for their anti-choice movement.

[elljay]

16. Of course they will oppose abortions

After all, it is god's will that women get raped or infected with Zika.

[LibDemAlways]

4. Most Catholics pay little to no attention to

pronouncements from the bishops on matters that affect their private life. The bishops would not be the ones faced with the daunting prospect of raising a child with an incurable and devastating birth defect. Women in affected areas will take appropriate precautions. The bishops are irrelevent.

[Kelvin Mace]

18. Most affluent Western Catholics have that luxury

but for poor people in this country and others who are at the mercy of government programs, these bishops matter quite a lot, as they are at the forefront of making such programs politically impossible.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Care to explain the HIV rates in Uganda? It's 44% Catholic, 7.2% of the people have HIV, 13% say

they have seen a condom at least once. Uganda has one tenth the population of the US and yet has over 60,000 AIDS deaths per year and because of that they have over 650,000 AIDS orphans. The Church forbids the use of condoms and in fact tells them condoms spread HIV. The Church hinders health and sexual education there and all over Africa, where each month-each month-over 100,000 people die from AIDS, the #1 killer in Africa.
Now Francis, he sashays into our Congress to tell us he has some concerns about 'threats to the family'. Does he mean HIV and all the dead or AIDS and all those orphans? No. He means he's upset that people want to get married.

I see Americans spout that these horrible poisonous lies don't matter because 'we don't pay attention to the Bishops' but that's just a terrible admission that they also don't think about Africa, nor about the results of the dogmas that they help present as legitimate. Those Bishops are not irrelevant, nor are those of you who protect them from very well deserved criticism.

[libodem]

5. No Doubt

Conservative Religious Consequences are not fully examined ideas. When is science and the lives of actual human beings ever going to matter to them. Sick of them pushing their false gods on the rest of humanity. You can bet they would find a safe sterile medical facility if it were their wife or daughter.

[Enthusiast]

8. +1 You nailed it. Especially on this....

"You can bet they would find a safe sterile medical facility if it were their wife or daughter."

[drm604]

6. Theology collides with reality.

Reality usually wins and most people do the prudent thing. Even before Zika, many Catholics have used birth control.

[dembotoz]

7. can not wait to hear how raising a deformed child is a gift from god

[LibDemAlways]

10. The thinking is that God chose

these parents for these special children as examples to the rest of us of unselfish love and sacrifice and that all lives, no matter what condition, are precious in the eyes of God.

Only the messenger here. Pretty sure this would be the party line, or close to it. And it's very true that the celibate men who pontificate on matters such as this have no clue how devastating this is in the real world.

Still, people who take on the difficult challenge of caring for a person with a disability deserve support and the person affected deserves to be treated with dignity and compassion.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. Yes, I have heard that ex-post facto justification before

Doesn't change the argument that if that is how your "God" behaves, he's a sociopath.

The best argument that can be made is that IF there is a god, then he certainly gave us more than enough resources to solve these problems. Cancer cures or stealth bombers with nukes?

We chose wrong all the time.

[Android3.14]

11. Saddened to see this comment

While I certainly agree with the ideal that a person should have control of their reproduction without interference from an organized religion, I find your comment to be unfortunate and disheartening to people who have disabilities and their caregivers. Having a relative with Downs Syndrome, observing families struggling with defects affecting vision and hearing, and working with many adults with physical deformities, I know that many people see the struggle eventually as a gift that increases strength and depth of character.

I doubt they would choose the condition, but your dismissive characterization of the experience demeans the struggle they face.

[Hoppy]

15. Well that is nice for those people who have their crosses to bear. The problem comes when they

think their cross should belong to everybody else.

[dembotoz]

23. i have connections to the local adult sheltered workshop...that "gift" is not for me

very red county and somehow the compassion from folks seems to end prior to adulthood.

my first wife died from the "gift" of leukemia and i, in retrospect that would be easier for me to deal with than
long term care of a special needs child. Cause the cancer starts and ends one way or the other, but the child will out live you
most likely and then what.

my bestest friend has an adult disabled daughter. My friend also has the gift of divorce cause her hubby could not handle
the thought of a less then functional child.....again my experience from the sheltered workshop....divorce is rather common in these families....Rest of her family????? hmmm not so much.....friends??? you wear them out cause well your plate is just so much more full than theirs.......funny found her experience similar to mine when my wife was dying.....not much fun to be around. the gifts keep piling up.

at the end of the day, she has me, i am pretty much her support system......and i do not know how much of a gift i am...

[smirkymonkey]

29. However that is a lifelong undertaking. How are poor, South American families going to

undergo that burden? Not only is it not easy, it is not cheap either. Unless the Catholic Church changes their position on Birth Control and Abortion, South America is going to have a nightmare on it's hands.

[LittleGirl]

9. that's the first thing I thought of

when I heard it was affecting south american countries - mostly catholic, that have outlawed abortions and some birth control.
What are these young women going to do when they have their sonograms at 20 weeks (if they do them) and they find out that their baby is affected? (This is the reason why I do not condemn late term abortions when this happens, like it happened to my neighbor with her second child). She kept the baby until nearly term, went into early labor and the baby died within an hour. She did have a third very healthy baby after that. Nearly destroyed her and they have a service every year in the baby's memory.

[iandhr]

12. No it doesn't

Last edited Wed Feb 3, 2016, 04:51 PM - Edit history (1)

They haven't changed their position on condoms despite AIDS. Why would these new pesky facts be any different.

[ErikJ]

20. U mean AIDS?

Cuz the Church hates gays?

[iandhr]

24. That's what I meant I fix it

[nyabingi]

13. Zika - the new disease to panic over

Remember West Nile virus? Ebola? AIDS? You know, these disease-causing agents that have been around for a long time (and many are available for purchase through scientific research supply stores) but are only now causing a fuss around the world? Where is the panic over these diseases now?

Don't let the mass media frighten you - your emotions are being toyed with in order to boost ratings, online hits and ultimately to sale the vaccines the pharmaceutical companies are ready to magically spring on the hysterical public.

[Bluenorthwest]

27. You know HIV/AIDS is the #1 killer in Africa, over 100,000 deaths each month of each year.

And it has been doing so for 30 years so 'just not causing a fuss' is rather obviously inaccurate.

[nyabingi]

32. That's true,

but AIDS is not being hyped as the new "killer disease" in the US by the media.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. What the Chruch is going to do is stick to its suspertions

and put dogam ahead of people's lives.

[houston16revival]

21. Who will pay to care for these sadly afflicted children?

Let me guess. The pro-lifers will cut social programs some more.

[lark]

22. I will be absolutely astounded if the church addresses this at all.

They will keep their head buried in the sand, like they always do, and ignore the crisis in front of them. Their "dogma" is eternal in their minds and not subject to change based on current necessities. They don't care that babies will be born with micro heads, that's not their concern. They only care about holding their line on contraception and abortion.

I hope I'm wrong, but doubt it.

[Warpy]

26. Oh, the Catholic position will be clear

It will be the duty of women to produce hydrocephalic babies because those babies will be incapable of sin and go directly to heaven when their usually short lives end. The church has always been cruelly consistent in these matters. Punishing women for the sin of sex is what they do best.

And they wonder why I stomped off in disgust at the ripe old age of ten.

[Bluenorthwest]

28. They have already failed that test with HIV, they sided with ignorance and death instead of

knowledge and life.

[a la izquierda]

30. Setting aside the Catholic conundrum for a minute...

There's also another cultural component: machismo and male dominance. Governments have suggested women not get pregnant. For women using birth control, this isn't a huge problem. But for women without birth control, abstention is the only option. Abstinence generally provokes male suspicions of female infidelity in Latin American communities...

[Flying Squirrel]

31. They'll just preach abstinence

They'll say "don't try to have a baby if you could be exposed to Zika", and if you're married but not trying to conceive then you'll have to lay off the sex anyway just in case.