"I may say that I am in favour of birth control. I am in favour of it for its own sake. I do not like to see any human being absolutely the slave of what we used to call 'Nature.' Every human action ought to be controlled, and you make a step in civilisation with something which has been uncontrollable. I am therefore in favour of control for its own sake. But when you go from that to the methods of control, that is a very different thing. As Dr. Routh said, we have to find out methods which will not induce people to declare that they cannot exist without sexual intercourse." [125]
Of course the use of contraceptives is the very negation of self-control.
The late Sir William Osier, speaking of venereal disease, says:
"Personal purity is the prophylaxis which we as physicians are especially bound to advocate. Continence may be a hard condition … but it can be borne, and it is our duty to urge this lesson upon young and old who seek our advice on matters sexual."
Section 4. THE ONLY LAWFUL METHOD OF BIRTH CONTROL
There are methods of control whereby people are enabled to exist, and to exist happily, without being slaves to the sex impulse. These methods are those of the Catholic Church. Her people are encouraged to take a higher and a nobler view of marriage, to overcome their egoism and selfishness, and to practise moderation and self-restraint in the lawful use of marital rights. The Church urges her people to strengthen their self-restraint by observing the penitential seasons, especially Lent; by fasting or by abstaining from flesh meat at other times, if necessary by abstaining from alcohol; and by seeking that supernatural help which comes to those who receive the Sacraments worthily. When all other deterrents fail, it is lawful, according to the teaching of the Church, for married people to limit intercourse to the mid-menstrual period, when, although conception may occur, it is less likely to occur than at other times.
All other methods are absolutely and without exception forbidden. This limited use of marriage, which, as we have seen, is within the rights of the married, differs from all methods of artificial birth-control as day differs from night, because: [Reference: Explanation]
(1) No positive or direct obstacle is used against procreation.
(2) The intercourse is natural, in contradistinction to what is equivalent to self-abuse.
(3) Self-restraint is practised in that the intercourse is limited to certain times.