CONTRACEPTION vs NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING: An Applied Ethical point of view.

 

Man, by nature is utilitarian- always drawn to the pleasurable, and withdrawn from the distasteful. This explains why he is always in search of both apriori and aposteriori arguments which may suit his views. The research which faces us, namely; the difference, if any exists, between natural family planning and contraception, is one which admits of no middle ground. Nevertheless, before we can stand in a position to state what the matter is, we need to investigate what each means in its very nature. 

By nature, the two words that coalesce to form the term contraception, if expanded, gives- contra-conception. So that by definition, contraception refers to any element or constituent whose very nature is to prevent or work against conception in a woman as a natural consequence of sex. Contraceptive methods include hormonal contraceptives, oral contraceptive pills, injectable contraceptives, contraceptive implants and so on. Under whatever name they appear, they all prevent pregnancy mainly by stopping a woman’s ovaries from releasing eggs. In June of 2020, the updated statistics of the World Health Organization read: among the 1.9 billion women of reproductive age group (15-49 ears) worldwide in 2019, 1.1 billion have a need for family planning: of these, 842 million are using contraceptive methods, and 270 million have an unmet need for contraception. Drawn to its logical conclusion therefore, contraception, is an unnatural family planning method that helps a co-habiting couple prevent an unplanned pregnancy even after deliberate sex.

Natural family planning by definition, refers to the knowledge of the mechanism of the woman’s body. It concerns the awareness of fertility in the female gender, which involves the ability of being able to identify the signs and symptoms of fertility during the menstrual cycle, in order to help plan or avoid pregnancy. The science made clear here is that there are times when a woman is fertile and when she is not. So that the chances of getting pregnant during those fertile periods are high. The natural family planning method works by observing and recording your body’s different natural signs and fertility indicators. Given that the fertile period lasts for about 8-9 days of the menstrual cycle (28 days thereabouts in all), and that more than one egg is released at ovulation (which occurs between 10-16 days before the next cycle begins), and that the sperm can live in a woman’s body for up to seven days, due to the conduciveness of the woman’s body, sex, within the range of seven days before ovulation, has a high tendency to result to pregnancy. So that consequently, if sex is put on-hold and engaged in at any other time outside of the period of ovulation, the chances of getting pregnant, are largely reduced. Although, this method has proven effective, it is not absolute.

The difference therefore between contraception and natural family planning (NFP), is that while contraception is far removed from a natural process, NFP is a natural method. Sequel to this, while in the use of contraception, something new is introduced into the man or woman’s body to prevent pregnancy, NFP makes use of what already exists in the woman’s body to prevent her getting pregnant. That is not all, while in contraception, there is a conscious effort to destroy any chance of the sperm fertilizing the egg, in NFP the fertilization of the egg by the sperm is simply prevented, and sex is entered upon only when the woman is said not to be fertile. The lists goes on and on, but I think the cogent point has been made.

FRIAR EMMANUEL IGBOEKWULUSI

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