35. Transmission of Life: Natural Regulation of Fertility
47. The Transmission of Human Life
47a) Man’s Role in Reproduction
Sperm cells are the life creating cells of the man. Each time a man ejaculates, millions of sperm cells are released. Once they are deposited in the wife’s vagina, sperm cells can fertilize the female egg. Sperm cells can survive for three days or more. Most men are always fertile because sperm cells are continuously being made.
47b) Woman’s Role in Reproduction: Ovulation and Menstruation
When a girl matures into a woman, she is able to have children. She begins to have cycles of ovulation and menstruation.
Ovulation: Once every month or so, a ripe egg is released from one of the ovaries. It travels into one of the fallopian tubes, where it may be united with a sperm cell, if any have reached the fallopian tube, and a baby is conceived.
Menstruation: If conception does not happen, the egg dies within 24 hours. Later, a part of the internal lining of the woman’s womb leaves her body, causing some bleeding.
47c) The Fertility Cycle
A woman’s menstrual cycle is also called her fertility cycle. Its length varies from woman to woman and from cycle to cycle. Most cycles last 25–35 days. The phases of the fertility cycle are the following:
· The days before ovulation (the early days). As the ovulation phase gets nearer, pregnancy becomes more likely.
· The ovulation phase. This is the fertile part of the cycle. The marital act during this phase may result in pregnancy, especially if it takes place:
o on the days just before ovulation,
o at the time of ovulation,
o any time during the lifetime of the released egg.
· The days after ovulation (the late days). This is an infertile time. This phase usually lasts 11–16 days.
48. Natural Family Planning
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a way to regulate conception by timing the marital act. By using NFP, couples learn to recognize the times in a woman’s menstrual cycle during which she can become pregnant. They can then plan their sexual relations depending on whether or not they want to have a baby at a particular time. NFP is not the same as the rhythm (calendar) method. Whereas the rhythm method is based on past menstrual cycles only, NFP depends on the changes of fertility as they happen.
If there are reasonable grounds for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of the husband and wife or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that then married people may take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and use their marriage precisely at the times that are infertile, and in this way control birth, a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which we have just explained.1
The so-called natural methods are concerned with a scientific question; they are methods of determining fertility. Here, precisely, is where the meeting of ethics, theology, and science must take place. Philosophical ethics and moral theology take up scientific knowledge and make it the path whereby the human person—using his freedom—achieves responsible procreation. Nevertheless, this knowledge and the methods connected with it could be used for purposes that are morally illicit. In fact, one cannot forget “that truth known through science can be used by human freedom for purposes that are opposed to man’s good—the good that ethics knows.”2 Therefore, it is necessary to contrast contraception with conjugal chastity rather than to contrast natural with artificial methods, for one of the manifestations of conjugal chastity is precisely periodic continence for just reasons.
The Church recognizes that there can be objective motives to have recourse to periodic continence. It insists, though, that couples must have serious reasons to lawfully refrain from the use of marriage during fertile days, while still making use of it during infertile periods, so that the spouses can express their love and safeguard their mutual fidelity.3
49. Moral Difference between NFP and Contraception
The difference between contraception and NFP is much wider and deeper than is usually thought. It is one that involves two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and human sexuality.
The upright use of the natural regulation is radically different from contraceptive practice. It is not simply a difference of technique but a different ethical behavior. The natural methods are means to determine the fertile periods of the wife. They open the possibility of abstaining from sexual relations whenever, due to just reasons of responsibility, the spouses desire to avoid a conception. In this case they modify their sexual behavior through continence while the dynamics and the structure of the conjugal act do not suffer any falsification. That is never the case when they choose contraception; they do not change their sexual behavior, and they falsify the intrinsic meaning of the gift of self, proper to the conjugal act, by arbitrarily closing it to the dynamics of the transmission of life.4
In contraception, the spouses attribute to themselves the indiscriminate right to be arbitrators of life, while in periodic continence, they renounce, by a mutual, intelligent, and responsible agreement, the use of matrimony during the fertile periods. Therefore, there is a twofold difference between periodic continence and contraception:
i) The object of the act
ii) The intention of the spouses
These are the two elements by which the morality of an action is judged.
The innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid through contraception by an objectively contradictory language, namely that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality.…
The choice of natural rhythms involves accepting the cycle of the person, that is the woman and thereby accepting dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility, and self-control. To accept the cycle and to enter into dialogue means to recognize both the spiritual and corporal character of conjugal communion, and to live personal love with its requirement of fidelity.5
John Paul II warned us against the danger of teaching about natural methods without accompanying it with adequate formation of conscience.6
Footnotes:
1. Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae, 16; cf. CCC, 2370.
2. John Paul II, Address, Nov. 14, 1984.
3. Cf. Ibid.
4. John Paul II, Address, Jan. 10, 1992; cf. CCC, 2370.
5. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 32.
6. Cf. John Paul II, Address, Mar. 14, 1988.
47a) Man’s Role in Reproduction
Sperm cells are the life creating cells of the man. Each time a man ejaculates, millions of sperm cells are released. Once they are deposited in the wife’s vagina, sperm cells can fertilize the female egg. Sperm cells can survive for three days or more. Most men are always fertile because sperm cells are continuously being made.
47b) Woman’s Role in Reproduction: Ovulation and Menstruation
When a girl matures into a woman, she is able to have children. She begins to have cycles of ovulation and menstruation.
Ovulation: Once every month or so, a ripe egg is released from one of the ovaries. It travels into one of the fallopian tubes, where it may be united with a sperm cell, if any have reached the fallopian tube, and a baby is conceived.
Menstruation: If conception does not happen, the egg dies within 24 hours. Later, a part of the internal lining of the woman’s womb leaves her body, causing some bleeding.
47c) The Fertility Cycle
A woman’s menstrual cycle is also called her fertility cycle. Its length varies from woman to woman and from cycle to cycle. Most cycles last 25–35 days. The phases of the fertility cycle are the following:
· The days before ovulation (the early days). As the ovulation phase gets nearer, pregnancy becomes more likely.
· The ovulation phase. This is the fertile part of the cycle. The marital act during this phase may result in pregnancy, especially if it takes place:
o on the days just before ovulation,
o at the time of ovulation,
o any time during the lifetime of the released egg.
· The days after ovulation (the late days). This is an infertile time. This phase usually lasts 11–16 days.
48. Natural Family Planning
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a way to regulate conception by timing the marital act. By using NFP, couples learn to recognize the times in a woman’s menstrual cycle during which she can become pregnant. They can then plan their sexual relations depending on whether or not they want to have a baby at a particular time. NFP is not the same as the rhythm (calendar) method. Whereas the rhythm method is based on past menstrual cycles only, NFP depends on the changes of fertility as they happen.
If there are reasonable grounds for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of the husband and wife or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that then married people may take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and use their marriage precisely at the times that are infertile, and in this way control birth, a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which we have just explained.1
The so-called natural methods are concerned with a scientific question; they are methods of determining fertility. Here, precisely, is where the meeting of ethics, theology, and science must take place. Philosophical ethics and moral theology take up scientific knowledge and make it the path whereby the human person—using his freedom—achieves responsible procreation. Nevertheless, this knowledge and the methods connected with it could be used for purposes that are morally illicit. In fact, one cannot forget “that truth known through science can be used by human freedom for purposes that are opposed to man’s good—the good that ethics knows.”2 Therefore, it is necessary to contrast contraception with conjugal chastity rather than to contrast natural with artificial methods, for one of the manifestations of conjugal chastity is precisely periodic continence for just reasons.
The Church recognizes that there can be objective motives to have recourse to periodic continence. It insists, though, that couples must have serious reasons to lawfully refrain from the use of marriage during fertile days, while still making use of it during infertile periods, so that the spouses can express their love and safeguard their mutual fidelity.3
49. Moral Difference between NFP and Contraception
The difference between contraception and NFP is much wider and deeper than is usually thought. It is one that involves two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and human sexuality.
The upright use of the natural regulation is radically different from contraceptive practice. It is not simply a difference of technique but a different ethical behavior. The natural methods are means to determine the fertile periods of the wife. They open the possibility of abstaining from sexual relations whenever, due to just reasons of responsibility, the spouses desire to avoid a conception. In this case they modify their sexual behavior through continence while the dynamics and the structure of the conjugal act do not suffer any falsification. That is never the case when they choose contraception; they do not change their sexual behavior, and they falsify the intrinsic meaning of the gift of self, proper to the conjugal act, by arbitrarily closing it to the dynamics of the transmission of life.4
In contraception, the spouses attribute to themselves the indiscriminate right to be arbitrators of life, while in periodic continence, they renounce, by a mutual, intelligent, and responsible agreement, the use of matrimony during the fertile periods. Therefore, there is a twofold difference between periodic continence and contraception:
i) The object of the act
ii) The intention of the spouses
These are the two elements by which the morality of an action is judged.
The innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid through contraception by an objectively contradictory language, namely that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality.…
The choice of natural rhythms involves accepting the cycle of the person, that is the woman and thereby accepting dialogue, reciprocal respect, shared responsibility, and self-control. To accept the cycle and to enter into dialogue means to recognize both the spiritual and corporal character of conjugal communion, and to live personal love with its requirement of fidelity.5
John Paul II warned us against the danger of teaching about natural methods without accompanying it with adequate formation of conscience.6
Footnotes:
1. Paul VI, Enc. Humanae Vitae, 16; cf. CCC, 2370.
2. John Paul II, Address, Nov. 14, 1984.
3. Cf. Ibid.
4. John Paul II, Address, Jan. 10, 1992; cf. CCC, 2370.
5. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 32.
6. Cf. John Paul II, Address, Mar. 14, 1988.