Posted on 05/25/2006 9:24:35 AM PDT by gcruse
[The rhythm method and embryonic death J Med Ethics 2006; 32: 355-6]
The “rhythm method” may kill off more embryos than other contraceptive methods, such as coils, morning after pills, and oral contraceptives, suggests an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
The method relies on abstinence during the most fertile period of a woman’s menstrual cycle. For a woman who has regular 28 day cycles, this is around days 10 to 17 of the cycle.
It is the only method of birth control condoned by the Catholic Church, because it doesn’t interfere with conception, so allowing nature to take its course.
It is believed that the method works because it prevents conception from occurring. But says Professor Bovens, it may owe much of its success to the fact that embryos conceived on the fringes of the fertile period are less viable than those conceived towards the middle.
We don’t know how much lower embryo viability is outside this fertile period, contends Professor Bovens, but we can calculate that two to three embryos will have died every time the rhythm method results in a pregnancy.
Is it not just as callous to organise your sex life to make it harder for a fertilised egg to survive, using this method, as it is to use the coil or the morning after pill, he asks?
Professor Bovens cites Randy Alcorn, a US pro-life campaigner, who has equated global oral contraceptive use to chemical abortion that is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths of embryos, or unborn children, every year.
But says Professor Bovens: if all oral contraceptive users converted to the rhythm method, then they would be effectively causing the deaths of millions of embryos.
Similarly, regular condom users, whose choice of contraception is deemed to be 95% effective in preventing pregnancy, would “cause less embryonic deaths than the rhythm method,” he says.
“…the rhythm method may well be responsible for massive embryonic death, and the same logic that turned pro-lifers away from morning after pills, IUDs, and pill usage, should also make them nervous about the rhythm method,” he contends.
Click here to view the paper in full: http://press.psprings.co.uk/jme/june/355_me13920.pdf
A calender does not detect a zygote and neither will our minds without a microscope. It is smaller than a period.
"That if your wife wants to have sex with you on Tuesday but was really more fertile Monday and you missed it, you'd say no?"
Well, since I don't accept that PREVENTING contraception is a sin and am thus not tied to the calendar for birth control, no. Mrs. MWT and I do it whenever we can get the girls out of the bedroom.
But yes, if we had to use the rhythm method or natural family planning or any other ovulation-avoiding-method, I would want to avoid ovulation fully, yes, and add a day or so on each side of the window.
Neglect is a conscious decision. Being unaware of something is not neglect.
If God had intended that only during optimum time would intercourse and fertilization occur he would have made us like the animals wherein sex is stimulated by the female going into heat. He did not do that hence sex is MORE than a reproductive scheme.
And a zygote is not life until it is implanted in the womb to be nurtured. Besides we do not know that any particular zygote will successfully implant even if the egg and sperm are perfect. Your attitude borders on fanaticism.
Are you surpirsed when the Sun comes up every morning.
After all, you can't see it at night.
I have no idea what that is supposed to mean unless you believe a zygote is a big yellow hot ball.
"If God had intended that only"
Wow. You KNOW God's mind. Pretty impressive. Can't argue with that.
Me, I have rely on the Bible, the Holy Spirit, teaching of Godly men and women through the years, and my brain.
But since, you KNOW God's mind and intention. You go on your way.
It's an allusion. I'm not surprised you didn't understand.
"This whole article is a big red herring."
Agreed.
"I hated to see people buy into the idea that they might be sinning if they have sex at anything other than the perfect day, because they might conceive an imperfect embryo that won't survive. This would never possibly even be known to them."
Disagreed --- but only if the (probably bogus) article is somehow correct. IF --- IF ---- this guy is somehow correct and perfectly good zygote (baby! life!) is created and yet doomed to die because of implatation problems that would seem terrible.
Armed with this potential knowledge the validity of the theory should be explored.
IF ---- IF --- we learn that this guy is correct and perfectly good zygotes are dying because of implantations problems, then FROM THAT POINT ON there would be a duty to avoid those days.
The inherant problem with eating from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is --- knowledge.
You will find NOTHING in the Bible indicating that intercourse should occur only during periods of peak fertility. OR that we should be concerned about zygote viability at all. Is there a NEW improved version of the Book?
Nor has there been any "teaching of Godly men and women" indicating such things. You have bought this Loon's bogus argument hook line and sinker.
We don't even know what that viability is affected by or how much yet you are willing to call someone a sinner in the face of complete uncertainty. That is fanaticism.
An allusion must have some revelance to what is included within it. Your attempt has NONE.
And why would the unknown implantation be "terrible" when it is a perfectly natural thing. If the prospective mother is not even aware of it there is nothing "terrible" to her. And the zygote has no consciousness so it could not be "terrible" to IT. For whom is it "terrible"?
How many zygotes do you want to kill to test the theory so we could know? I doubt any. I think it's crazy to assume supreme knowledge of the state of our zygotes in any given month is even possible. No cycle is that accurate.
Of course, it's crap. It isn't an embryo until it is fertilized before then it is only an egg - an unfertilized one.
"An allusion must have some revelance to what is included within it. Your attempt has NONE."
Here, I'll help you:
You said:
"A calender does not detect a zygote and neither will our minds without a microscope. It is smaller than a period."
1. A calendar can be used, with one's mind, to predict a woman's ovulation.
2. Now, just because you can't see the egg, doesn't mean it's not there. You see, smart scientist types have figured out that the eggs are there almost every month and looked at them in microscopes for us.
Your post states that the egg -- and any fertilized egg --- is not a problem because people can't see the the zygote.
Well, that's silly, because while they can't see the egg --- or the resulting zygote --- they have reason to know that it may be there.
The reason, again, they know it's there is the calendar and a brain.
Which brings us to the Sun. You can't see it at night, but, AMAZINGLY, it's there every morning, just like your brain and a clock (it's like a calendar, but faster and ticks, in case you did not know) would tell you it was going to be.
No, but the acceptance of the lining to zygote implantation can be tested.
Look, if you look at my profile, you will see that I am a Jew by birth. Probably described as Orthodox for a good part of my life, and that training, is, in part where I am coming from.
A lot of the traditions you see Orthodox Jews do is avoidance of sin --- violation of the Law.
For example, the Bible permits the eating of only certain insects. Well, the identity of the permitted insects is less than clear in this day and age. We have a good idea, but not ABSOLUTE knowledge.
Ergo, to be on the absolute safe side, ALL insects are avoided for those keeping kashrut, even though we'd be 99.44% sure we'd be OK eating certain ones.
That "safe harbor" --- avoid in the abundance of caution approach is my approach to problems like this.
I DON'T KNOW the correct answer. However, I know the SAFE answer.
And when dealing with accidently killing someone, I would opt for the safe harbor.
Opinions differ as to what is "safe." Yours obviously does.
I don't honestly know what I was thinking by clicking reply on this thread... it's mental gymnastics over unknowns, by a doctor who is just trying to stir the pot.
LOL.
what a biased load of crap.
for actual information on NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING (not the "rhythm method") go to:
Couple to Couple League
http://www.ccli.org/
I got a great book from the Couple to Couple League that thoroughly explained NFP. This is yet another attempt to poison women's bodies with horrible hormones. I am a Catholic but my main reason for using NFP is because I will never put an artifical pill to alter my hormones that would put me at risk for breast cancer and strokes.
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