THOMISTIC INSTITUTE, Priory of St. Joseph – Warsaw, Poland Dominicans and the Challenge of Thomism June 30 – July 5, 2010

Contraception and Violence: The Scientific Data of Human Experience

Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.L.

Department of Biology, Providence College, Providence, RI, U.S.A.

What role can scientific data play in Thomistic moral theology?

Science can sample human experience.

Contraception and Violence: The Scientific Data of Human Experience THE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL: 1960-2010

I. Contraception Does Violence to the Acting Person.

Oral Contraceptives Increase the Risk of Breast Cancer in Women.

Oral Contraceptives Reduce the Flexibility of Blood Vessel Walls

Oral Contraceptives Increase the Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

Oral Contraceptives Decrease Bone Mass Density in Young Women

II. Contraception Does Violence to the Acting Person’s Relationships.

Oral Contraceptives Disrupt Dissociative Mate Choice in Human Beings

III. Contraception Does Violence to the Acting Person’s Community.

Contraception Increases Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing

Contraception Discourages Men from Marriage Leading to Social Pathology

THE PREDICTIONS OF HUMANAE VITAE

17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.

Pope Paul VI, Humanae vitae, July 25, 1968

THE AUSTRIACO LABORATORY AT PROVIDENCE COLLEGE THE DEAD YEAST SOCIETY 2009-2010 Christopher Chin ’10 Shawn Davidson ’10 Ryan Fredericks ’10 Daniel Gittings ’10 Jeffrey Norte ’10 Nathan Pinches ’10 Yi Cao ’11 David Laprade ’11 Vincent Cascio ’12 Kevin Murphy ’12 Matthew Hurton ’13 Jennifer Malouin ’13 Lea Noonan ’13 FUNDING National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Science Foundation (NSF)