Pill inventor slams. . . .pill
January 8, 2009
Eighty-five-year-old Carl Djerassi, the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill, now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe."In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world's Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought "devastating ecological effects" by releasing into the environment "tonnes of hormones" that had impaired male fertility, The Taiwan Times says.
The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step toward the earliest oral contraceptive pill.
Djerassi outlined the "horror scenario" that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction." He said: "This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete."
He described families who had decided against reproduction as "wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it."
The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an "epidemic" far worse, but given less attention, than obesity. Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an "intelligent immigration policy."
Read entire article here.
God is so gracious with us. No matter the magnitude of the mistakes we make - and , unfortunately, how many we led astray - some of us are given the time to find the truth and proclaim it. We need to pray for this man, who is undoubtedly feeling the weight of his sin.
And pray that his words will be heard.
I am so grateful to see the change of heart. So there really is "good" "change"! I am a mom of 8 wonderful, gifts from God, I very briefly used the pill in my first year of marriage and had a very hard time of it. Not physically, but mentally. I always felt I was doing something wrong. I embraced my fertility, and used it for the good of my marriage. My husband and I are completely open to life and each other. Life is good and God does provide. We are not millionaires, we are just prayers!! We trusted God gave them to us and He would help us provide for them and He has. Wonderful to hear the change of heart, now we all need to just shout it from the rooftops.
So your argument, essentially, is that unwanted pregnency is a good thing? I can't imagine that getting much acceptance outside of Catholic circles.
Carl Djerassi has said no such thing. He is quite upset at being misquoted by Catholics. I went to a lecture he gave last night at Stanford University and this was the first topic discussed. He certainly does not slam the pill, or birth control of any kind. He noted the countries with the highest rates of illegal abortions are Catholic. According to Dr. Djerassi there are plenty of people in the world and the answer is immigration to places where populations are not reproducing themselves. There was an announcement that the lecture was being videotaped and will be online. I encourage you all to check it out so you can stop misquoting Dr. Djerassi. Frankly, overpopulation is a huge problem. There are not enough resources to feed the world as it is. Unless you can afford to feed the unfed, bringing more in for the ride is ignoring a deep and profound responsibility to the starving.