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Accents How to defend life and family
Coming in first in the e-mail was Dr. Doris Bagarinao, an aquaculture scientist from SEAFDEC: “I can understand your stand, because that is my stand, too. “It is sad, but you (we) are taking on the Vatican (Catholic church?) doctrine when we try to counter the Archbishop of Jaro. My parish priest in Villa supports the Archbishop. During one of his 'sermons' he explained that our life, your life, my life, anybody's life, is not ours, but God's. Life is God's gift to us, and only He can take it away. This is the principle behind the church's opposition to contraception, abortion, birth control, and the death penalty. Okaaaay, so where does that leave the women (or couples) who can not afford to have children? And the criminals who are a menace to society? “I think we can not convince the Archbishop of Jaro nor the other priests of the rationality of our position. But why bother? The influence of the Church is weakening in many ways. Most couples who are having lots of children are not doing it out of obedience to the Church. Most of these baby factories are plain ignorant about their bodies and about reproduction, the men thinking it is their marital right to demand sex, the women not aware of their right to refuse sex, or unable to insist on the right (baka mabugbog or baka bayaan). “I think empowerment of women is the best way to stop couples from having too many children, and keep our population growth down. Women who want to 'go places' (work, study, travel, career) will want to delay, or even refuse, being somebody's wife and future mother. If we can get women to delay marrying until they are 30, that will reduce their child-bearing period considerably. This means we need to provide lots of opportunities for women to 'go places.' Also we need to stop feeding young women fancy beauty fare, romance, and Prince Charming fantasy, and feed them instead lots of information about reproduction, careers, women's rights. “I am far from a screaming feminist, but really, more women should learn to insist on control over their bodies, their lives, and their futures. When women do, there will be fewer children, no population explosion, no.need for birth control, no streamers from the Archbishop of Jaro.” Writes UPV Prof. Zeni Bernabe-French: “I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Lagoc's protest over the Catholic Church's campaign against the use of contraceptives to control our mushrooming population. The campaign is, to quote a friend who is both Catholic and married, that it is ‘an insensitive pile of bullshit planted in the middle of our consciousness to confuse the Filipino about what any rightminded citizen should do about the population explosion.' “I agree also with my friend. “For what other form of insensitivity can one think of regarding the very pressing need to control the population growth, reduce the strain on the environment, counter the poverty that leads to high crime rates, corruption, ignorance, and the ever-increasing infant mortality rate? It is policies like this that has kept our country in the Third World and unable to get out of it. I am a Catholic, a practicing one who goes to Mass every Sunday, contributes my few pesos for the Church and the poor, encourage my children to go to Church, pay my taxes, do not harm my neighbors, pray every night for the good of my country, etc. “So, I am putting here my two-cents' worth. “Can't the Catholic Church be more humane in this matter of the use of contraceptives? In effect, the present “No to Ligtas-Buntis” is a deadly call to arms against humanity.” My cousin Dr. Mimi Gedang, a retired anaesthesiologist who has been to several Third World countries as a volunteer of Medicins sans Frontieres , writes: “An excellent article that goes straight to the heart. [Thanks.—JCL] I find no mention of the use of contraceptives anywhere as a sin. I think I will be considered by the archidiocese as enemy No. 1 or No. 2 but it will be worth it. We can't join them so let's fight them. Perhaps we can get some results. “Contraception explicitly signifies the prevention of fertilization of a woman's egg by the sperm from the male—with the use of contraceptive pills, internal uterine devices (IUD), condoms, and the morning-after pills. There is no fetus being killed. “Abortion is termination or killing of a living fetus, a viable fetus meaning that life without connection to the mother is not possible. Abortion is being practiced by incompetent people with the risk of crippling the woman (infertility) because of consequent complications, and more often with the risk of death from hemorrhage and infection. Most governments tolerate it in two special cases—in case of disease and high risk for the mother, and where there is an abnormal, non-viable fetus which results in a child that is a problem to the parents and to the medical world. “I don't advocate abortion since it is a murder act. What of capital punishment? Another murder act but our laws are there for that. “I have sent my children to exclusive Catholic schools for their basic education. I made sure that their sexual education is made clear so that by adulthood they should be able to take their responsibilities in our modern world. “We should avoid an increase in the number of children that we cannot feed, clean, and educate.” Executive Director Nick Primavera of the Western Visayas Ecumenical Council combines both his flawless English and excellent Tagalog to drive home his point: “Mas malaki ang scope ng issue than you perceive it. You are moving about the arguments of the population issue in terms of numbers. Kung arithmetic lang iyan, panalo ka na. Pero we cannot confine the issue to numbers. How did you metamorphose into one who's concerned about numbers so much that she cannot see other things? Look at it this way. (Pero di ba you used to think this way? Your travels may have changed you, and I do understand. Pero, puwede ka pa namang mapatawad.) “Sabi ng isang economist, because of the exponential nature of population growth, food production the world over will not keep up with the increase in population. This is the numbers treatment I am speaking about. So, better cut down on the population to achieve what you had mentioned in your column. On the other hand, listen to this argument: There is enough resources in the earth for everyone's need, but not nearly enough for everyone's greed. If you look at the supermarkets in the Philippines, who will say na we are poor? Ang daming pagkain, etc. on the shelves, umaapaw pa sa dami. Pero bakit many Filipinos go hungry? Kasi they do not have enough money to buy the food from the supermarkets! And why do they not have the moolah? Because there are too many of them? Maybe? But I can swamp you with truckload of reasons why they go hungry every day, other than their numbers. In fact, you know most of these reasons yourself. Kaya lang, nabubulagan ka pa rin ng kaunti pa. Hindi mo naman ito kasalanan. Everyone is subject to make this error of perception. “Development is the best population control method. If people did not have an uncertain future, they will have the confidence to have only one or two children. But when the future is bleak, nay life threatening, people will consider each child not an additional mouth to feed, but an additional pair of hands to work, to earn, for defense, and for caring for the aged. You will see here, that given the situation we are in now, it is rational to have more children. But correct the injustice, give opportunity to everyone, assure each of a future, and voluntarily, parents will begin to plan their families. “The population bomb is a Rockefeller baby. Big business is worried about population growth because more population means more young people. More young people means more unrest. More unrest is bad for business. “Having babies is not the problem really. The problem is that the few corners most of the earth's resources, and the many have only very little. “Underdevelopment is the modern word for sin. I suppose that I need not go any further. And if you are squirming in your seat now, or biting your fingernaila, or worse, pulling your hair [Ha! ha!—JCL], consider it just desserts for thinking global and not local.” A parallel opinion comes from his wife, SEAFDEC scientist Dr. Jurgenne H. Primavera: “… I agree with Nick's wider take.” From Dr. Edmond Yee, professor of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California: “Your arguments are very spirited and to the point. [Thank you.—JCL] I am with you on the matter of birth control. The debate in the West has always been on the question ‘when does life begin,' instead of ‘how are we going to care for human life?' In my opinion the people who argue against birth control are not very concerned folks when it comes to caring for human life and the environment. The sub-text of the argument could be ‘control' and ‘power,' or ‘domination' to use a biblical word. This seems to be the main theme of monotheistic religions, which I reject religiously, politically, ecologically, economically and psychologically. On the other hand, I embrace the following Neo-Confucian statements: “Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions.” Bringing me back to the D-G's (Discussion Groups) of pre-Martial Law days is my brother Simplicio Carreon, Jr. of the Provincial Councilors League: “We are a country rich in natural resources which can very well support the present population, and even more. It's just that the wealth of the country is confined in the hands of the very few. “We still bear the effects of the encomienda system of the Spanish times when vast tracts of land were awarded to gobernadorcillos or to the ruling class. Thus, one man's family owns almost the whole town, or an hacendero's plantation reaches as far as the eye can see. The children of the feudal lords enjoy this inequality. That and the misuse of development tools cause poverty, not overpopulation.” It might be interesting to know how many children the above-mentioned individuals have: Dr. Doris Bagarinao has one, Prof. Zeni French has two, the Primaveras have four, my cousin Mimi Gedang has three, Dr. Edmond Yee has two, my brother Simplicio has two, and Rudy and I have four. (Comments to juliaclagoc@yahoo.com ) |
