My post last week regarding our fertility clinic and their Catholic ethos and approach to collection of semen for analyis proved to be a bit of a jaw dropper. Xbox was saying that as far as he was aware, the Catholic Church had no issue with IUI, as it does not involve the discarding of fertilitised ova. I thought that they were averse to IUI, on the grounds that the collection of semen by means of "manual methods" constitutes an immoral act. I did a bit of googling to investigate further the Catholic Church's stance on IUI. Here's what I found.
Basically, the Catholic Church is ok with IUI, as long as the sperm is obtained through what they term "licit means", as in through an act of sexual intercourse between husband and wife, using a perforated condom as a collection device. From what I can gather, the condom has to be perforated in order to comply with the church's regulations as regards contraceptive devices. Which is laughable really, considering the fact that any couple pursuing fertility treatments are doing so because they cannot conceive without medical intervention. I very much doubt if any of them with Houdini like tendancies are going to make their way to the fallopian tubes if they couldn't manage it without the obstruction of a condom in their way.
It's all a bit bizarre really. They don't want fertile people to prevent themselves conceiving, and they don't want infertile people enlisting the help of medical professionals to enable them to conceive. No wonder people my generation are deserting the church in their droves. Thankfully we are now living in an Ireland which is not ruled by the church, and fertility treatments are widely available, albeit if you have the money to pay for them. It's about time that health insurance cover was available for fertility treatments in Ireland, but that's a whole other rant.
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I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the reasons we are running away in droves. This does have to be one of their more ridulous though.
It is a moral minefield!
Organized religion is bizarre. Really, really bizarre.
I actually felt a bit bad for my comment last week in case I was stepping on any toes.
I'm glad you've come back to it.
It baffles me, it really does.
The church is supposed (unless Im off my trolley) to be about love, and family, and preservation of both.
Yet they frown on treatments that require a man, a loving husband, a want-to-be-father to provide a semen sample in the most practical way possible.
Can his wife 'do it' for him? A loving act, as it were?
Surely the whole side stepping a supposed moral dilemma using a perforated condom is just a technicality? and as such is defeating the purpose in the first place?
I can't put my finger on why this maddens me like it does. It brings out the rant in me.
I'm stopping here, now, honest.
I didnt read yr article just post and comments... so does that mean the church thinks it is wrong to masturbate or have oral sex?
sheesh I agree with that organised religion comment, weird.
My more religious aunties and uncles used to wonder why I refused to go to church or be confirmed. I didn't dare say so to them, at the time, as I was a teenager and would have sooner stripped naked in Marks and Spencer's Food Hall, but I always thought that a system of religious belief that makes that big a freakin' deal over masturbation had to be more than a little cracked.
The perforated condom idea is ingenious, though, I must say. What a cool way round the issue (issue! I said issue! Bwahahahaha someone slap me).
Kim - It certainly does.
WFI - It sure is for anyone who takes it seriously!
Sarah - I hear ya.
Xbox - I was wondering about the whole idea of the wife lending a hand with the job, so to speak. Surely that wouldn't a solo act then? It's all a bit ridiculous really.
PIB - Exactly, both those acts are big fat sins as far as I can see. I'm going straight to hell then ;o)
May - Wouldn't blame you for avoiding it. Here in Ireland it's almost taken for granted that all Catholics will be confirmed at the age of 12 or so. There seems to be very little choice in the matter. I have to say if I had kids I would give them the option of opting out of it if they didn't want to. But somehow I think the lure of the presents and cash is too big for most kids to turn down.
I think the perforated condom thing is just totally off the wall. It's like the way they don't allow divorce, but they have annullment, so that they can pretend that a marriage never existed in the first place. Talk about rationalisation!
...and something else that popped into my head, the idea of collecting a sample in something that has fecking holes in it!!!!
How does that work, as you hand it over to the nurse, with husband's finest dripping all over the corridor and counter?
No you don't hand over the condom, you transfer the man milk into a normal collection pot and hand that over. She told us we didn't need to tell them how it was collected. Not that we were going to. They'd think we were bloody bonkers! (Unintentional pun there)
Oh my head hurts now.
So basically you can just go away and gather it normally and hand it over anyway?
and I meant to say, on the details form we have for collection of the sample, it says specifically the same should go directly in the pot, and NOT via a condom.
Funny old world.
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