It's quite fascinating how two seemingly unrelated stories can pop up at the same time, shaping thought and opinion about a topic. In this case, the two items fall under the category of the resulting life and death decisions that come from condom usage, or lack-there-of.
In the first story, we have Pope Benedict, who, exhibiting a truly bizarre thought pattern, said earlier this year that distributing condoms might actually increase the spread of HIV and AIDS, changed his stance on condom usage this weekend.
The church has long held the stance that contraception among childbearing adults is unacceptable. Thus, condoms have long been condemned by Catholics.
Since there is no chance of conception between males, the procreation issue is mute.
At the time, the pontiff made no mention of heterosexual couples of any kind, including those that might contain one infected partner.
So, it seems that this statement has no bearing on the church's stance on using condoms as a form of contraception between consenting adults.
While it might seem to be a step in the right direction regarding the spread of HIV and AIDS, it remains to be seen if the church will make a change in its teachings regarding the use of condoms to avoid contraception.
Now, on the same weekend that this story was breaking came another story that seems just as confusing, and, unusually related to this one.
A couple has put up a website where people can vote on whether they should abort their unborn child or not.
You read that right.
A married Minnesota couple, who have had two miscarriages this year, are asking the public to vote on the fate of their unborn son.
Website visitors have until Dec 7th to vote. The last day for the woman to legally get an abortion is two days later.
She will be approximately 18 weeks pregnant.
On the site http://www.birthornot.com/ they've posted sonogram photos and a history of their time together as a couple.
Right now, there are more votes for having an abortion.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was raised Catholic and my parents are very pro-life.
While I lean toward a fetus' right to life, I do not consider myself 'super' pro-life as I believe that I am not one to tell anyone else how to live their life.
But in this instance, this fetus will be 18 weeks. A pregnancy is 40 weeks. That means that this woman will be almost halfway through her pregnancy. That's almost five months pregnant. I find it hard to believe that she could carry this baby for that long and then just discard it like it means nothing.
As I mentioned, the couple has hard two miscarriages just this year which in and of itself begs for some clarification.
What's the real story here? Do they want kids or not? Clearly they're not using birth control.
Are they just using this as a sick ploy to become famous in some way? What if the final vote is for the abortion? Will they really go through with it?
Why isn't there an option on the site to put the baby up for adoption? There are millions of couples who can't have children and would gladly raise this boy as their own.
I'm a little skeptical about this whole thing. While there is a sonogram picture with woman's name on it, that could be a doctored in some way as there are some very savvy photoshop artists out there. And, there are no pictures of the couple.
It says on the site that they have been getting media requests. It will be very interesting if they really come forward. Can you imagine the firestorm an appearance on a morning show would create?
Could this whole thing be made up?
Maybe this is all just a hoax by some ethicists trying to see how people will actually vote and what kind of comments this site will generate.
If this is a real couple I just wish they would have used condoms. Given this stunt, it seems unlikely to me that they'll be very good parents. And that's just what we need in this world, more idiots procreating.
Could the Pope maybe add that stipulation to condom use -- that you must have some level of intelligence, compassion and class to procreate and that all others MUST use some form of contraception?
What are your thoughts on these two issues -- the catholic church and condom use, and the site http://www.birthornot.com/.
I am truly curious to see how all this will play out.
In the first story, we have Pope Benedict, who, exhibiting a truly bizarre thought pattern, said earlier this year that distributing condoms might actually increase the spread of HIV and AIDS, changed his stance on condom usage this weekend.
He said that condom use by male prostitutes could represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility for the risk of transmitting the disease, thus possibly reducing the number of infected individuals.
But, he said this statement in response to a question about Africa, where heterosexual, not homosexually transmitted, AIDS is rampant.
The church has long held the stance that contraception among childbearing adults is unacceptable. Thus, condoms have long been condemned by Catholics.
Since there is no chance of conception between males, the procreation issue is mute.
At the time, the pontiff made no mention of heterosexual couples of any kind, including those that might contain one infected partner.
So, it seems that this statement has no bearing on the church's stance on using condoms as a form of contraception between consenting adults.
While it might seem to be a step in the right direction regarding the spread of HIV and AIDS, it remains to be seen if the church will make a change in its teachings regarding the use of condoms to avoid contraception.
Now, on the same weekend that this story was breaking came another story that seems just as confusing, and, unusually related to this one.
A couple has put up a website where people can vote on whether they should abort their unborn child or not.
You read that right.
A married Minnesota couple, who have had two miscarriages this year, are asking the public to vote on the fate of their unborn son.
She will be approximately 18 weeks pregnant.
On the site http://www.birthornot.com/ they've posted sonogram photos and a history of their time together as a couple.
Right now, there are more votes for having an abortion.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was raised Catholic and my parents are very pro-life.
While I lean toward a fetus' right to life, I do not consider myself 'super' pro-life as I believe that I am not one to tell anyone else how to live their life.
But in this instance, this fetus will be 18 weeks. A pregnancy is 40 weeks. That means that this woman will be almost halfway through her pregnancy. That's almost five months pregnant. I find it hard to believe that she could carry this baby for that long and then just discard it like it means nothing.
As I mentioned, the couple has hard two miscarriages just this year which in and of itself begs for some clarification.
What's the real story here? Do they want kids or not? Clearly they're not using birth control.
Are they just using this as a sick ploy to become famous in some way? What if the final vote is for the abortion? Will they really go through with it?
Why isn't there an option on the site to put the baby up for adoption? There are millions of couples who can't have children and would gladly raise this boy as their own.
I'm a little skeptical about this whole thing. While there is a sonogram picture with woman's name on it, that could be a doctored in some way as there are some very savvy photoshop artists out there. And, there are no pictures of the couple.
It says on the site that they have been getting media requests. It will be very interesting if they really come forward. Can you imagine the firestorm an appearance on a morning show would create?
Could this whole thing be made up?
Maybe this is all just a hoax by some ethicists trying to see how people will actually vote and what kind of comments this site will generate.
If this is a real couple I just wish they would have used condoms. Given this stunt, it seems unlikely to me that they'll be very good parents. And that's just what we need in this world, more idiots procreating.
Could the Pope maybe add that stipulation to condom use -- that you must have some level of intelligence, compassion and class to procreate and that all others MUST use some form of contraception?
What are your thoughts on these two issues -- the catholic church and condom use, and the site http://www.birthornot.com/.
I am truly curious to see how all this will play out.
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