TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE ...... …… …… …… …… …… ……ii
CERTIFICATION ...... …… ….. …… …...iii
DEDICATION ...... …… …… …… …… …...iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT …… …… ….. …… ……v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... …… …… …… …..vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION …… …… ...... …... …… …… 1
STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM ...... …... …… …… 1
PURPOSE OF STUDY …… …… …… …… …… …… 3
SCOPE OF STUDY …… …… ..... …… …… …… 5
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
...... …... …… …… 5
LITERATURE REVIEW …… …... …… …… …… 6
CHAPTER ONE
NATURE OF FAMILY PLANNING
1.1 What
Is Family Planning …... …… …… …… 13
1.2 Origin
Of Family Planning …… …… …… …… 15
CHAPTER TWO
KINDS OF FAMILY PLANNING
2.1.0 Natural Family Planning…… …… …… …… …… 19
2.1.1 Kinds Of Natural Family Planning…… …… …… 21
2.1.2 The Calendar Method…… …… …… …… …… 21
2.1.2 The Basal Temperature Method (B.B.T) …… 22
2.1.4 The Ovulation Method (O.M) …… …… …… 23
2.1.5 The Sympto-Therminal Method (S.T) …… …… 24
2.2.0 The Artificial Method of Family Planning …… 25
2.2.1 Contraceptives …… …… …… …… …… 26
2.2.2 Abortifacients …… …… …… …… …… …… 30
2.2.3 Silent Abortion …… …… …… …… …… …… 31
2.2.4 Direct Abortion………… …… …… …… …… 34
CHAPTER THREE
J. F. KIPPLEY AND NATURAL
FAMILY PLANNING
3.1 Marriage
and Family Planning …… …… …… 40
3.2 The
Effectiveness of Natural Family Planning at Preventing and Achieving
Pregnancy…… …… …… 43
3.3 Factors
Militating Against the Practice of Natural Family Planning…..45
CHAPTER FOUR
CRITICAL EVALUATION AND
CONCLUSION
4.1
Critical
Evaluation …… …… …… …… …… 49
4.2
Comparison
Of The Two Methods Of Family Planning …… 49
4.3
Conclusion …… …… …… …… …… …… 57
BIBLIOGRAPHY…… …… …… …… …… …… …… …… …… 62
GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There is this popular perception that
population growth impedes economic development and induces poverty; that it
means increased infant and maternal death rates, and that it leads to
environmental degradation and depletion of resources. Certainly, there are
problems with poverty, poor health and overcrowding in some regions of the
world; but could we then say that the world is simply overcrowded?
Through the media, we are all familiar with the
tragedy of people starving to death in various places. Overpopulation
propagandists often use the TV image of the severally malnourished children in
Somalia or Sudan, or any other war-torn-areas as a basis to argue that
population growth in developing countries is causing poverty and famine.
The population controllers
to justify the violation of human rights throughout the world have used the
myth of overpopulation. Speaking of this, Michael Schwartz said:
The
myth of overpopulation is one of the most powerful in the world, and is the
source of many of the attacks against our moral, cultural and family values. In
reality however, it is nothing more than a rationalization for a world-wide war
against the poor- a war which inhibits legitimate development and social
justice.
All these shouts about overpopulation
is actually pointing to the fact that the world had a population crisis
especially when we consider the fact that the issue of family planning had not
been there right from when the world began.
Openness to life and the extension of
love to others must be the dominant qualities for a successful and happy union.
Yet maintaining the openness to life brings its own share of problems and
tensions. We live today in a world in which the child is often looked upon as a
burden, rather than a benefit. Each birth is analyzed in terms of the economic
cost, without any measurement of the intangible benefits that accrue to
parents, to the family itself and to society. The love of children that leads
to parental generosity and sacrifice is often constrained by a propaganda
effort, which has arbitrarily decided that the two-child family should be the
norm for all couples.
Moreover, from my origin
of family planning, we are to see that the quest for family planning is
actually coming from well-developed organizations and associations who are bent
on checkmating the population of the world. Then, although that so many organs had
agreed to do something about the population of the world, several of these
organs to say had never reached on a precise way to follow. That is why we can
then talk of things like artificial and natural ways of achieving family
planning.
PURPOSE OF STUDY
Expectedly, many scholars
have pondered and are still pondering on the overall effects of family planning
on the entire human race. It is based on this fact that various camps had
emerged as far as family planning is concerned. There is this group that feel
that it is not appropriate to embrace family planning since they feel that the
world is not overcrowded and therefore, not yet the time to be talking about
family planning. Even, they argue that population growth is healthy and highly
recommended as a way of balancing our eco-system. The other camp is that of
those who support the idea of family planning but insisted that it should be
achieved through the natural
means. There are a lot of others who are against this idea as they maintain
that artificial method of controlling birth is more appropriate and easier than
any other method.
Yet, despite this progress, a great
number of married couples hardly know the basic techniques of family planning,
and many more are lacking in confidence because they remain unaware of the
dramatic advances that have taken place. In addition, many of these women are
always at a lost on which method of family planning to take because they are
uninformed in any type of family planning. And also, it will go a long way in creating
more awareness and enlightenment to those women who have been forced into
adopting a particular type of family planning due to several governmental,
environmental and organizational polices. This work will also serve the purpose
of bringing a basic knowledge of family planning to those who are uninformed.
It will also provide information and assurance that will give new confidence
and hope to couples who wish to use the natural methods reliably and
effectively.
SCOPE OF STUDY
My work is centered more on the two
methods of family planning including the analysis of both of them. However, for
the purpose of precision and of the requirements of this study, the research is
limited to the views of J. F. Kippley.
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
Owing to the nature of this work,
which is historical and explorative, the method used is expository,
descriptive, analytical and evaluative. The expository and descriptive method
treated on the nature, origin and history of family planning. That of the
analysis treats on the differences among the different methods of family
planning as well as the merits and shortcomings. And then, the evaluative will
help in accessing the different methods of family planning so as to find out
the suitable and more risk free. As a philosophical inquiry, this study would
try to analyze the ‘raison d’etre’ of
the whole philosophy behind the issue of family planning.
In general, the work is
divided into four chapters. Chapter one offers the meaning of family planning
as well as the historical view on family planning. The second chapter exposes
and examines the different kinds of family planning that are applicable in our
society today. In chapter three, I will discuss the analysis of Mr. J.F.
Kippley’s notion of family planning. Then, the fourth chapter will critically
evaluate the whole intellectual exposure.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Before we proceed into our main work,
it will be right to see the notion of various people who have either said or
done something in favour of one of the two methods of family planning. Thus,
studies have shown that while some people are greatly in favour of the natural
family planning, others are on the other hand in support of the artificial
method of family planning. We are therefore to see those various individuals
and organization that did something in favour of one of the methods of family
planning.
The first person to consider here is
Pope Pius XI’s stand and condemnation of unnatural methods of family planning.
For him, there should always be both a call to generosity in the service of
life and the acceptance of the principle of spacing babies through natural
family planning.
Pope Paul
VI in his ‘humanae vitae’, one of his encyclical letter in July 25th, 1968,
lending weight to the course of natural family planning made this assertion:
If we look further to physical,
economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is
exercised by those who, guided by prudent consideration and generosity, elect
to accept many children. Those are also to be considered responsible who, for
serious reasons and with due respect for moral precepts, decided not to have another child for either
a definite or an indefinite amount of time.
Another
person to observe his opinion is His Eminence, The Grand Imam Sheikh of
al-Azhar University in Cairo, who once provided conference goers with a booklet
which was prepared by his international Islamic center for population studies,
saying that Islam categorically condemns abortion…except…to…preserve the mother’s
life.
On the other hand, below are the supporters of
artificial family planning. The first person to be seen among this group
is Margaret Sanger nee Higgins (1879-1966), an Irish American who was the one
that introduced the phrase, birth control through her polices in the 1920s and
1930s. Margaret’s theory was very famous in her time
especially as to have influenced Hitler so much. Sanger’s objective was to
eliminate what she called the unfit members of the society by massive
sterilization programs. Unfit members of the public for her include the poor,
illiterates, the handicapped and the criminals, the black Americans and the
Africans. In a letter, which she wrote to Clarence Gamble on 19th
Oct, 1939, she expressed her plans to stop the growth of black population in
the USA. Margaret also introduced many groups to channel her views. Among these
groups were the Planned
Parenthood Federation in America which she founded and was its first president.
Sanger’s group saw the Africans as ‘sub man’ and the typical English labourer
as ‘sub sub man’ who should be eliminated from the society. For her, 70% of the
American people were reckoned as ‘morons’ (morons for her means those with low
I.Q), and she recommended that the government should conduct I.Q tests
compulsively so that those with low I.Q. will be immediately sterilized so as
to curtail their growth. For her therefore:
The burden of supporting these unwanted types has to
be borne by the healthy elements of the nation. Funds that should be used to
raise the standards of our civilization are diverted to the maintenance of
those who should never have been born.
Maria Stopes (1880-1956) on her part
in supporting the course of the unnatural method of family planning founded the
first birth control clinic in Great Britain in 1921. She also founded a society
for constructive birth control and racial progress for which she was the first
president. However, it is now widely recognized that these two women, Maria and
Sanger were responsible for today’s sexual permissiveness, pornography,
divorce, contraception and abortion through their actions.
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), an
avowed elitist is another personality who was credited to have championed the
birth of family planning. In his view, he believed that the poor should be
eliminated for the sake of the society. Intrinsic to Malthus theory was a
belief that the poor overburdened the world’s resources and that consequently,
they should never really exist. Malthus view influenced many so that they began
to see anyone who helps the poor as an enemy of the society since he was only
helping to prolong and propagate evil.
Having
said something about some individual views on family planning, let us then see
the notion of some organizations and groups that lended wait to the support of
one of the methods of family planning.
The Christian churches were not left
behind in the issue of supporting one of the two methods of family planning.
Thus, the church insisted that the practice of natural family planning is the
only authentic method of family planning. Hence:
the church teaches that it is morally permissible for
couples to calculate their fertility by observing the natural rhythms inherent
in the generative faculties and to reserve marital intercourse for infertile
times. Thus, couples are able to plan their families without violating the
moral teachings
Seeing the opinions of a non-profit
organization, which was founded in 1971 by Mr. J. F. Kippley, The Couple to
Couple League (CCLI), and the organization helps couples build healthy
marriages through the practice of natural family planning. The league teaches
engaged and married couples how to practice natural family planning. Also, it
teaches the most up-to-date
methods in natural family planning.
CCLI also distributes information on the hazards of unnatural birth control,
chastity, raising children, and related medical news.
The population controllers like the Planned Parenthood
Association of America which was founded by Dr. & Mrs. Sanger allege that
the world is critically overburdened with people right now, and that this crush
of humanity is destroying the environment and creating inconveniences for those
who are living. Therefore, they said that it is essential that we slow or halt
population growth by making contraception and abortion available to all of the
world’s women. Since about 1965, the population controllers have also been
hinting that, if we do not put the brakes on our runaway population, the use of
massive and widespread coercion will be necessary in order to save the planet.
On the whole, they advocated for zero rate of natural population increase. [i]7
Some of these population controllers include; International
Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), United Nations Fund for Population
Activities (UNFPA). Some other organization and countries that have extensively
founded the population controllers are the World Bank, USA, and Rockefellers
Foundation in America, Singapore, Bangladesh, China, South Korea, India,
Brazil, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, turkey, Colombia, Nigeria, and
others. Among the countries that said they will not lend easier support to
abortion were Germany, Poland, Switzerland, France,
the Latin and Muslim countries, Kenya, Ghana 6.
CHAPTER ONE
NATURE OF
FAMILY PLANNING
1.1
What Is Family Planning
Family planning according to the
Oxford Advance English Learners dictionary is defined as the process of
planning the number of children, intervals between births, etc in family by
using birth control method. Family planning, says a character on a television
show aired in Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) channel 8, Enugu, Nigeria on
16th April 1996, means having children when you want to. Further,
for Williams, family planning programmes provide information and services to
help people achieve their own fertility objectives. It should be noted that at
the time organized family planning campaigns were first extended to the
southern hemisphere in the 1950s, there was absolutely no indigenous support
for them.
The
family planning campaign uses incentives to persuade people to try
contraceptives. Cash payments are paid to sterilization acceptors, and
financial rewards or bonuses are given to upholders of family planning in the
clinic.
The incentive approach was also extended to the private sector, where large
employers (often multinational corporations) make it known that workers are
expected to use family planning. This tactic has been widely implemented in
Brazil, Nigeria and India, and is supported by U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID). Family planning itself is a deceptive, which aims in
hiding the fact that fewer children are the sponsor’s long-range and only
objective. The report also suggested the use of incentives
such as payment to acceptors for sterilization or disincentives such as
giving low priorities in the allocation of housing and
schooling to those with larger families. The incentive programmes, which
have been in use in some parts of Asia for almost twenty years, works best when
people are hungry. A study published in 1990 by the Population Council, a U.S.
government population control contractor, examined the incentive programmes in
Bangladesh. Under that programmes, persons who agree to permanent surgical
sterilization are paid a fee for doing so. The Population Council’s report
contains among all other cases, a story of Khairul, a labourer with a young
wife and three small children. His earnings were so low, says the publication,
that if Khairul fails to find employment for a single day he has to borrow
money from neighbours to buy food. For two days before his surgery, the
Population Council publication says, Khairul had no job and no food for the
family. Still, he resisted sterilization. He sold an aluminum-cooking utensil
and bought a small amount of rice, which kept the family alive for two more
days. Then, in desperation, he accepted the sterilization to save himself and
the children.
1.2
Origin of Family Planning
The origin of family planning is traceable to Thomas Robert Malthus
(1766-1834), an Anglican clergyman and a British economist who
was the first person that raised alarm in the year 1798 that the earth’s
population was growing at a faster rate which could soon outrun the earth’s
resources. For a way of checkmating population growth, he suggested the issue
of late marriage and total abstinence once a family reached the parents’
desired size. But then, when he made this assertion, much attention was not given
to his dire warning until it seemed about to come true in a dramatic way as the
world at then seemed to be reduced more and more in size because of improved
means of transportation and of communications. Then, people began to become
very conscious of each other such that the world suddenly appeared to be
cramped, confined and overcrowded. It was this issue that Marshall Mchuhan
spotlighted when he asserted that the earth has been reduced to the dimensions
of a small village
As
this was going on and as the dust, which Malthus raised was yet to settle,
demographers came up with the most alarming figures imaginable. Their research
showed that the line of the population graph moved slowly and evenly until it
reached the level of 1000 million people by the year 1800AD. By 1850, the graph
began to take an unexpected curve upwards. It swiftly passed the 1500 million
mark so that in less than fifty years, the world population increased by almost
half as many people as in the past three million years.
No
wonder the demographers got alarmed and started shouting that the earth’s
population if allowed to continue in this way could outrun the earth’s
resources. In 1860, Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered how to vulcanize
rubber, and this new technology was soon applied to the making of condoms,
which had previously been made from animal skins or intestines. In the 1860s,
the neo-Malthusians dropped the morality of Malthus and promoted contraception
with the new condoms. And then, the state of Indiana in the USA was the first
place in the world to pass legislation based on eugenic principles. In 1907, it
passed a compulsory sterilization law aimed at confirmed criminals, idiots,
rapists and imbeciles. Thirty other states and Puerto Rico were to follow
later. Moreover, the first organized movement towards that end developed during
the 19th century. The pioneer, Marie Stopes almost single-handedly, and against
powerful oppositions, succeeded in promoting public knowledge of, and demand
for contraception. Valerie Riches said that after World War II, when the truth
about Hitler’s attempt to breed a master race emerged, “the eugenics movement
had to go underground and the term birth control, which had strong Nazi
connotations were dropped in favour of family planning. The noble idea that the
world was overpopulated gave them the justification they needed and the
population control movement was born..
Moreover,
even after the birth of population control movements and the introduction of
family planning, the worst was yet to happen to population increase as the
population graph soared directly upwards at an astonishing rate. It would be
recalled that the earth’s population as at the year 1900, was estimated at 2000
million. But then, at 1930, the population of the world rose to 3000 million.
Thus, in less than 30 short years, the earth’s population increased by almost
half as many people as in the past million years. Finally, it should be noted
that the World Health Organization (WHO) has also helped many countries to organize
and promote family planning programmes. WHO also sponsors research programmes
on family planning and contraception.
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