Pill inventor slams ... pill

Catholic News.com ^ | January 08, 2009

[GonzoII]

Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe." In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world's Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought "devastating ecological effects" by releasing into the environment "tonnes of hormones" that had impaired male fertility, The Taiwan Times says.

The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step toward 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."

[GonzoII]

Ping.

[trisham]

bump!

[livius]

Better late than never, I guess.

I’ve read other articles also about the accumulation in drinking water of hormones from birth control pills and the negative effect this could have. But of course we’ll never have a serious study of this one.

[mockingbyrd]

Well, well, well......at least he’s honest.

[NYer]

Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe."

“Though it is true that sometimes it is lawful to tolerate a lesser moral evil in order to avoid a greater evil or in order to promote a greater good," it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it (18)—in other words, to intend directly something which of its very nature contradicts the moral order, and which must therefore be judged unworthy of man, even though the intention is to protect or promote the welfare of an individual, of a family or of society in general.”

HUMANAE VITAE

Catholic Ping
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[thinking]

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an “epidemic” far worse, but given less attention, than obesity. Young (Americans) 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.”

[Aquinasfan]

hty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe."

Imagine being partially responsible for the single greatest invention destructive of human life. God help him, and God help us.

[Myrddin]

The fallout from the "pill" is two-fold. Reduced reproduction by women and reduced fertility in men from exposure to the excreted estrogens in the water supply. The estrogens are damaging males of all species exposed to the contaminated water.

[Falconspeed]

Very good article. I shall use this with my Ethics students. It is obvious that the pill leads to the separation of the two goals of intimacy = affection + children.

[Myrddin]

I’ve read other articles also about the accumulation in drinking water of hormones from birth control pills and the negative effect this could have. But of course we’ll never have a serious study of this one.

There are plenty of serious studies. All ignored. At the same time, water supplies with arsenic in the parts per billion range are being subjected to scrutiny...mostly as a means of exerting government control over the users of the water.

[Antoninus]

The "pill" generation is already starting to gray. When they die off, their legacy will die with them.

As for the rest of us, well...my sixth is due in August.

[ishmac]

WOW!! This is like Bernard Nathanson or Norma McCovey coming out against abortion.

[ishmac]

...my sixth is due in August

You get a WOW too! Prayers for a save pregancy and delivery. God bless you both!!

[annalex]

The fallout from the "pill" is two-fold.

That is just the physical part, and you did not count the abortifaciency of the pill.

Yet even greater damage was cultural: the disconnect of sex from procreation emaciated sex and lead to a demographic suicide, while moral acceptance of contraception paved the way to the moral acceptance of abortion.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"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," he said. "

What a strange answer. There is evidence of incipient degradation of male sexual structure and function in humans on a continent-wide scale: but hey, why be worried about that?

No, I guess we've got to emphasize that exoestrogens affect trout, salamanders, mountain goats and Rattus rattus.

Save the black European rat! That's the battle cry that'll rally the green European male!

[Citizen Blade]

At the end of the day, no one is forced to take the pill (except for a smal percentage of women who take it for serious health issues)

Women in the West have voluntarily decided that regulating their fertility and having less children is much more attractive than being fertile at all times and having large families. There are, of course, demographic consequences as a result of these decisions, but everything we do has consequences.

Barring some sort of government intervention, I don’t see women giving up the pill any time soon.

[Nihil Obstat]

congrats!

[annalex]

Banning, or at least severily restricting the use of the pill would be legitimate government intervention for the public good. However, it may not be necessary before a large segment of the population abandons the practice fo contraception. Let us recall how even mild, in comparison, forms of asocial behavior such as indiscriminate public smoking or driving while drunk became socially unacceptable.

Further, as soon as the social security ponzi scheme collapses just as the Pill Generation attempts to slip into retirement, more than a few will realize that the consequences of which you speak are not at all purely academic.

[B-Chan]

Kipling was right