Sterilization and Catholic hospitals.

Contraceptive sterilization is any procedure whose aim is to make a person, male or female, incapable of reproduction. In the female this is usually achieved by cutting the Fallopian tubes and tying off the open ends of the tubes. This prevents the sperm from fertilizing the ovum, so that no conception is possible. In the male it is done by tying off the vas deferens which conveys the sperm. This also prevents conception. These are the methods of contraception favoured by the vast majority of Canadians. It is now common for a woman, during her second pregnancy, to be asked by her doctor if she wants to have her tubes tied after the delivery.

Why is it wrong?

These procedures are practised in public hospitals, and lamentably, in Catholic hospitals also. Why is contraceptive sterilization morally wrong? Pope John Paul II, in November of 1981, gave the answer:

"God is love and in Himself, He lives a mystery of personal loving communion, creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. As an incarnate spirit, that is a soul which expresses itself in the body, and a body informed by an immortal spirit, man is called to love in his unified totality.

Love includes the human body, and the body is made a sharer in spiritual love. Consequently, sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is by no means something purely biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death. The total physical self-giving would be a lie if it were not a sign and fruit of a total personal self-giving, in which the whole person, including the temporal dimension, is present."

The Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation stated in 1975 that contraceptive sterilization is "absolutely forbidden according to the doctrine of the church." (1) The Congregation recognized that there is dissent against this teaching but declared that no "doctrinal significance can be attributed to this fact." The faithful may not invoke the dissent of theologians as a practical moral guide.

Catholic hospitals

In regard to the management of Catholic hospitals, the Congregation teaches that the approval, management, and execution of contraceptive sterilization in accord with hospital regulations is "by its very nature (or intrinsically) evil. The Catholic hospital cannot cooperate with this for any reason." (2)

The practice of contraceptive sterilization in Catholic hospitals, achieved on a permanent basis for the individual by vasectomy or tying of the tubes, is a serious scandal which wounds the Church. Non-permanent sterilization, through the use of mechanical or chemical contraceptives prescribed and/or administered in the hospital, is a similar scandal. It places souls in peril of perdition, and makes evangelization more difficult to achieve.

Theologically, a scandal is any action--word, deed or omission--which is either evil or appears to be evil and is likely to be an occasion of sin for others. Contraceptive sterilization has been carried out, for example, in St. Joseph's Hospital and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto over the last twenty years, as well as in Catholic hospitals elsewhere. This has been widely known by concerned Catholic physicians from the beginning. Is it not time that an end was put to this scandal?

Practical problems such as possible closing of hospitals, conflicts with some theologians, or with some hospital personnel, or other conflicts do not justify its continuation. Catholic hospitals should give practical witness to the Faith. Their mission is not only that of physical and psychological healing, but acting as beacons of Christian charity and orthodox Catholic teaching and practice to all people of good will.

Reversal of sterilization:

Reversal of both tubal ligation and vasectomy is possible. The rate of pregnancy after vasectomy is reversed can be 50 - 80%. The rate of pregnancy after reversal of tubal ligation can be as 85%, but varies with the age of the patient and her innate fertility.

Is one obliged in conscience to undergo reversal of a vasectomy or tubal ligation? Thomas J. O'Donnell, S.J. answers . . . "There are times when, under the impetus of Divine Grace, the contraceptively sterilized offending partner, is brought to a state of true contrition and sincere purpose of amendment (including, obviously, a basic willingness to have if possible, surgical repair of the contraceptive mutilation). Under these conditions, their marital intercourse would no longer be overshadowed by the contraceptive will of the sterile partner, and would be legitimate in every way. It is to be carefully noted, however, that this moral analysis would in no way apply to some superficial, uninformed and only `nominal' Catholics who might think, quite erroneously, that they can be contraceptively sterilized and as they say, `go to confession and be in the clear'. If however, the repentance and purpose of amendment is absolutely sincere, one would not be obliged to attempt an anastomosis [reunion of tissues] when success would be very doubtful and the expense very great."

The author is a former Chief of the Department of Radiology, Centenary Health Centre, Scarborough, ON.

Note: The booklet Sterilization, which includes the above mentioned document, is available from Life Ethics Centre, 53 Dundas St. East, Toronto, On., M5B 1C6. Second updated edition, Dec. 1995, 26pp, 85cents; 10 for $8.00; 100 for $70.00. Minimum order: $5.00.

3. Thomas J. O. Donnell, S.J., Medicine and Christian Morality, Alba House, New York, 1991, pp. 230-31.

(1) . A document about sterilization in Catholic Hospitals, issued March 13, 1975, by the Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation in response to questions from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

(2) . Ibid.