Amid the controversy surrounding the availability of birth control on Catholic campuses, several factors and realities seem to be left out of the debate. Students have asked, quite openmindedly and honestly, about the Church’s reasoning behind its stance on contraception.

Unfortunately, the University’s lackluster response and the pathetic failure of the faculty panel/discussion on birth control midway through last semester fell miserably short of expectations. On a campus run by the most intellectually-elite order of Catholic priests with the excess of resources flowing from the various departments and offices at the University, there is no reason Boston College should not host a colloquium on birth control in light of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical letter Humane Vitae.

The debate on campus has – and still does – fail to mention many arguments and aspects of birth control with broader implications than those in the dorm room. For example, the philosophical relations between sexuality, birth control, and the human person have nowhere been mentioned.

There are questions that need to be explored, such as: What does it mean to be a sexual being, and is our humanity inhibited, enhanced, or affected in anyway by the blocking of our procreative processes? Do Catholics (ideally) save themselves for marriage because the Pope says so, or because doing so is in accordance with a life of virtue, the fulfillment of what it means to be human? Are there sociopolitical reasons for strengthening the core unit of society – the family?

The long-term effects of abortion and contraception are being felt in more places than college campuses. While the birth rate in the United States is just barely enough to replace the death rate, certain demographics therein are slowly inhibiting pregnancies and aborting themselves out of existence, such as the African-American community. Other nations similarly suffer insufficient population-replacement rates.

Austrian chemist Carl Djerassi, who was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Nixon for pioneering the oral contraceptive pill, lamented in January of this year his work in the field.

He holds himself somewhat responsible for the 1.4 children per family birthrate in Austria, a crisis he claimed to be worse than obesity. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard quoted him as saying that continental Europe sees “no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction.” The sociological problem of a country which cannot replace its own population is the greatest catastrophe of modern Europe, Djerassi explained.

The current era is the only one in human history which has seen absolutely no connection between sex, procreation, and love. It is conceivable, and indeed quite common, to have sex without love, or even to procreate with neither sex nor love due to sperm banks and in vitro fertilization.

Simultaneously, the positive aspects of expressing or promoting the virtue of chastity are likewise being ignored. For example, does chastity and monogamy within the context of marriage correspond to what each and every person needs? Is there something about being human which requires chastity as a formative tool to work towards our perfection? Need sex within marriage be the “repressing” of desires or the fulfillment of them?

In addition to these philosophical questions, there are practical aspects of chastity, too. Uganda, a country which has successfully implemented abstinence policies to halt the spread of AIDS, has been incredibly more successful than other African nations which have had relatively negligible success with a focus on condoms.

Further, a stable, secure family bonded by love and solidified in the profession of marriage has been the key to every viable citystate throughout human history. This truth was the wisdom that allowed ancient Greece and Rome to flourish as they did.

Moreover, Paul VI, in Humane Vitae, saw the crisis that would be caused by the lack of chastity and divorce between procreation and sex. The depths of his insight have yet to be exhausted in their entirety, but what better time or place to begin exhausting them than a prestigious Catholic university such as Boston College?

These preceding paragraphs serve as a reflection and grounding on which an academic inquiry can be built. Birth control is thus the center of a major crisis in modern times. Yet Boston College seems extremely reluctant to comment on the issue in all its complexities, facets, and challenges. With its resources, especially from the Church in the 21st Century and the incredible strength of our Philosophy Department, Boston College has the ability, indeed the duty, to host a colloquium about birth control.

Failure to do so would be a disservice to the student body, the intellectual needs of the school, and the Catholic Church at large which continues to struggle over this issue. On behalf of a curious student body and a Church in need, we at The Observer demand such a colloquium.

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