Not only are there eloquent Catholic philosophers to reassure smart Catholics that NFP occupies a very different ontological niche than other methods of avoiding conception
It mainly does because it’s much less effective. A Catholic friend told me that if NFP improved to the point where it was almost as effective as the pill or condoms, where people could actually use it to be very sure they wouldn’t have kids, it would then become unethical.
She couldn’t pin down an exact probability for how ineffective birth control has to be in order to be ethical, but the idea was that influencing conception is all right, but controlling it (almost) completely isn’t.
Actually, well-trained NFP practitioners can do startling well (see, e.g. Wikipedia’s sidebar).
I always thought that there was a fairly easy way out of equating NFP with other forms of contraception—just pretend like everybody learns it so they can maximize their reproductive potential instead of minimize it.
What I’m trying to say is that if you were a Catholic, you could teach people Natural Family Planning and tell them that it is to be used for finding out which days are the best for procreation.
It mainly does because it’s much less effective. A Catholic friend told me that if NFP improved to the point where it was almost as effective as the pill or condoms, where people could actually use it to be very sure they wouldn’t have kids, it would then become unethical.
She couldn’t pin down an exact probability for how ineffective birth control has to be in order to be ethical, but the idea was that influencing conception is all right, but controlling it (almost) completely isn’t.
Actually, well-trained NFP practitioners can do startling well (see, e.g. Wikipedia’s sidebar).
I always thought that there was a fairly easy way out of equating NFP with other forms of contraception—just pretend like everybody learns it so they can maximize their reproductive potential instead of minimize it.
(Edit: No longer applicable.)
There was an extra word, actually. Fixed, thanks.
What I’m trying to say is that if you were a Catholic, you could teach people Natural Family Planning and tell them that it is to be used for finding out which days are the best for procreation.