Birth Anatomy Of Love And Sex 1981

When Darwin was born, the existing technologies of birth control were little different to those used by the Romans. By the time of Darwin's death, the cell theory of biology was finally established, the infective role of bacteria had been shown, the evolutionary process was understood, the study of anatomy had reached its final development, aseptic surgical techniques had been developed, and anesthetics had been introduced. A basic understanding has been established of the physiology of every body system. However, the understanding of reproduction lagged behind that of other systems.

Birth Anatomy Of Love And Sex 1981

The Vatican Council in 1962 was a major milestone in Catholic theology. It redefined the church as God's people, not as a flock obedient to a master, and it underwent the same type of about-face on the purpose of marriage, substituting a theology built on mutual love for one that had seen the primary aim of marital union as being the procreation of children. The majority of Catholics and practically all theologians of stature began to develop an ethical system that embraced so-called artificial contraception. In 1963, Pope Paul IV set up a Pontifical Commission to discuss the matter. Initially, the Commission consisted of 13 men, but it was expanded to 58 members, including five women. As the Commission began to re-examine the Church's teaching on contraception, the Pope appointed 16 Bishops to oversee its work, and in the end even the bishops voted nine to three (there were three abstentions) to accept so-called artificial contraception. Pope Paul was obsessed with the prestige of his office and in the end he rejected the majority findings of his own commission and endorsed a minority report by Cardinal Ottaviani, Fr. John Ford, and others. Ford was concerned that the Vatican could not change on birth control because, in his words, of the millions we have sent to hell if these norms were not valid."74