Re: Suggesting birth control to starving Africans against their human rights?

"REP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> >
> >
> > Define "given birth control". Is this a reference to depo provera?
>
> The articles I read were about The Pill. Depo might present problems,
> since it can cause amenorrhea, which might be difficult for women trying
> to hide their contraceptive use.

That is what I thought. This would be just about impossible both in the
rural and urban areas. It would first be necessary to ensure that there were
centres to which women had access and from which free birth control pills
would be available at all times and after having jumped that impossibly high
hurdle, the women would have to be sure to take them on a daily basis. That
simply would not happen.

> > In fact, making sure that every "at risk" female had access to a method
of
> > birth control will be as difficult as making sure that every HIV
positive
> > woman has access to ARVs.
>
> Difficult does not mean not worth doing.

Difficult in this context means as close to impossible as makes no
difference. The present Health Service is going down the tubes at a rate of
knots and the new law regarding the registration of medical practices,
awaiting promulagation, is likely to ensure that the rate of descent
increases exponentially.

> > There is an obvious ethical question to be raised in regard to
involuntary
> > sterilization, but what about the ethical question of bearing children
when
> > there are no means to support them?
>
> I can't think of a culture where women relish seeing their children die.
> Putting contraceptives into the hands of women, along with education,
> are two of the surest way to regulate fertility without coercion.

This is what "cause and effect" is all about. There seems to be a serious
problem in this regard. There is also the very serious problem of
male/female relationships amongst the generally "at risk" sectors of the
population which exacerbate the basic risk factor. Reliance on publicity to
create a massive cultural turnabout is unlikely to have any sort of overall
effect.

Mark Richardson