Abstract
In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the world’s first contraceptive pill. Various forms of contraception had been utilized throughout recorded human history, from spermicidal herbal suppositories in ancient Egypt to coitus interruptus—as reported in the story of Onan in the Book of Genesis (38:8–10).
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Notes
- 1.
The most recent articulation of the Church’s affirmation of the procreative dimension of marriage was in Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Casti connubii (1930, nn. 17–18).
- 2.
Among the available NFP methodologies are those developed at the Jesuit Creighton and Marquette universities: http://www.creightonmodel.com/; http://nfp.marquette.edu/. Accessed 20 June 2016.
- 3.
- 4.
In addition to these artificial methods of contraception, the Church disallows coitus interruptus or any other sexual behavior that leads to insemination outside of a woman’s reproductive tract (e.g., masturbation). For a comprehensive overview of the development of the Church’s teaching throughout history, see Noonan (1965).
- 5.
The Church allows for sterilization to be tolerated as a foreseen but unintended side-effect of a proportionate therapeutic intervention, such as a hysterectomy to remove a cancerous uterus or removal of the testes in cases of bilateral testicular cancer. There is currently debate, however, over whether it is permissible to perform a preventative removal of a woman’s fallopian tubes (salpingectomy )—perhaps along with her ovaries or uterus—in cases where there is a fear—due to the presence of a genetic risk factor—of potentially developing ovarian cancer; see Coleman et al. (2015); Gremmels et al. (2016); National Catholic Bioethics Center (2016).
- 6.
See the discussion of the Church’s view of the moral status of human embryos and fetuses in Part I.
- 7.
Murphy has co-authored a chapter with Rhonheimer addressing a different issue using the same analytical framework in Part II of this volume.
References
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Eberl, J.T. (2017). Introduction. In: Eberl, J. (eds) Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics. Philosophy and Medicine(), vol 127. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55766-3_14
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