Birth Control Part 13

"Once more, careful distinction needs to be made between the use and the bad effects of the abuse of birth control. That its abuse produces grave harm I fully agree--harm to parents, to families, and to the nation. But abuse is not a just condemnation of legitimate use.

Over-eating, over-drinking, over-smoking, over-sleeping, over-work do not carry condemnation of eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, work."

These long extracts are here quoted because, as _The Spectator_ has remarked, "an attempt at a detailed summary might destroy the careful balance which is essential to Lord Dawson's purpose." It might indeed; and many a true word is written inadvertently and despite the wisdom of the serpent. As Lord Dawson believes that Malthusian practice is not of necessity sinful, and as he is urging the Church to remove a ban on that practice, it is necessary for him to prove in the first place that his opinion is right and that the teaching of the Church is wrong. Elsewhere in these pages I have stated _the reasons why_ Christian morality brands the _act_ of artificial birth control as intrinsically a sin, a _malum in se_, and those reasons have never been disproved by Lord Dawson or by anyone.

His comparison between the use of contraceptives and eating or drinking is a false a.n.a.logy. Eating is a natural act, not in itself sinful, whereas the use of contraceptives is an unnatural act, in itself a sin. The extent to which artificial birth control is practised neither increases nor diminishes the sinful nature of the act, but merely indicates the number of times the same sin is committed. Lord Dawson admits the danger of Neo-Malthusian methods being carried to excess, and counsels that these practices be used in moderation; but is it likely that those who have discarded the teaching of a Church and the dictates of the moral law will be seriously influenced by what he calls "an appeal to patriotism"?

Now there is one appeal to patriotism which Lord Dawson could have made but did not make. He might have pleaded that for the sake of the nation all attempts at unnatural birth control amongst the wealthier and more leisured citizens should be abandoned forthwith, and that the lawful form should be confined to those few cases where limitation of the family is justified on genuine medical grounds. But he refrained from making that appeal, and his plea for the use of contraceptives in moderation is more likely to be quoted with approval in the boudoirs of Mayfair than in humbler homes.

Lord Dawson's grave error in failing to antic.i.p.ate the inevitable consequences of his deplorable speech is becoming more and more apparent.

In the columns of _The Daily Herald_, cheek by jowl with advertis.e.m.e.nts concerning "Herbalists," "Safe and Sure Treatment for Anaemia, Irregularities, etc.," "Knowledge for Young Wives," and "Surgical Goods and Appliances," there appears the following notice:

"Lord Dawson, the King's Physician, says, 'Birth control has come to stay.' Following up this honest and daring declaration, the Liberator League have decided to distribute 10,000 copies of its publications free to applicants sending stamped addressed envelopes to J.W. Gott, Secretary ... London, N.W.5."

A stamped addressed envelope brought in return sample copies of two undated newsprints, ent.i.tled _The Rib Tickler_ and _The Liberator_, and, to the honour of newsvendors, we learn that these papers are "not supplied by newsagents." The first print is devoted to Blasphemy, and the second to Birth Control. Both papers are edited by J.W. Gott, "of London, Leeds, Liverpool, and other prisons," who, when he is not in jail for selling blasphemous or obscene literature, earns a livelihood by a propaganda of "Secularism, Socialism, and Neo-Malthusianism," combined with the sale of contraceptives. At Birmingham in 1921 this individual, according to his own statement, was charged, on eleven summonses, with having sent "an obscene book" and "obscene literature" through the post, and with "publishing a blasphemous libel of and concerning the Holy Scriptures and the Christian Religion." "The Malthusian League (at their own expense, for which I here wish to thank them) sent their Hon. Secretary, Dr. Binnie Dunlop, who gave evidence" ... that the Council of the Malthusian League ... "most strongly protests against the description of G. Hardy's book, _How to prevent Pregnancy_, as obscene, for that book gives in a perfectly refined and scientific way this urgently needed information." This opinion was not shared by the jury, who brought in a verdict of guilty, and Gott was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. From the _Liberator_ we learn that the Treasurer of the Liberator League was fined 20, having been found guilty on the following summons--"for that you on the eleventh day of September 1920, at the Parish of Consett, in the County aforesaid, unlawfully, wickedly, maliciously, and scandalously did sell to divers persons, whose names are unknown, in a public street, there situate, a certain lewd, wicked, scandalous, and obscene print ent.i.tled 'Large or Small Families,' against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King, His Crown and Dignity."

Lord Dawson's advice was indeed perilous because "the British Empire and all its traditions will decline and fall if the Motherland is faithless to motherhood"; [120] and the nation would do better to pay heed to the following words of His Majesty the King: "The foundations of national glory are in the homes of the people. They will only remain unshaken while the family life of our race and nation is strong, simple, and pure."

All Lord Dawson's arguments are h.o.a.ry fallacies. "Once more, careful distinction needs to be made between"--anaesthetics and contraceptives.

Anaesthetics a.s.sist the birth of a child, whereas contraceptives frustrate the act of procreation. The old explanation that man's progress has been achieved by harnessing and not by opposing the forces of nature is dismissed with ignominy. The age-long teaching of Hippocrates that the healing art was based on the _Vis Medicatrix Naturae_ is overthrown by Lord Dawson of Penn, in a single sentence; and in place of the Father of Medicine as a guide to health of body and mind, there comes the King's Physician:

"To pestle a poison'd poison behind his crimson lights."

When a great leader announces the birth of a new epoch, it is meet that the rank and file remain silent; and at this Congress of the Church of England no jarring interruptions marred the solemnity of the moment. No old-fashioned doctor was there to utter a futile protest, and there was no simple-minded clergyman to rise in the name of Christ and give Lord Dawson the lie. Without dissent, on a public platform of the Established Church, presided over by a Bishop, and in full view of the nation, "the moth-eaten mantle of Malthus, the G.o.dless robe of Bradlaugh, and the discarded garments of Mrs. Besant," [121] were donned--by the successor of Lister.

It was a proud moment for the birth controllers, but for that national inst.i.tution called "Ecclesia Anglicana" a moment full of shame.

[Footnote 100: _British Medical Journal_, August 6, 1921, p. 219.]

[Footnote 101: There is, or perhaps we should say there was, a legacy of 1,000 Rhenish guilders awaiting anyone who, in the judgment of the faculty of law in the University of Heidelberg or of Bonn, is able to establish the fact that any Jesuit ever taught this doctrine or anything equivalent to it. Vide _The Antidote_, vol. iii, p. 125, C.T.S., London.]

[Footnote 102: Gen. x.x.xviii. 9-10]

[Footnote 103: Vide _Catholic Times_, August 27, 1921, p. 7.]

[Footnote 104: _The Army and Religion_, 1919, p. 448.]

[Footnote 105: _Universe_, November 4, 1921, p. 3.]

[Footnote 106: _Eighty-second Annual Report of the Registrar-General of England and Wales_, 1919, p. xiv.]

[Footnote 107: _The Times_, January 13, 1885.]

[Footnote 108: _British Medical Journal_, November 19, 1921, p. 872.]

[Footnote 109: _British Medical Journal_, November 26, 1921, p. 924]

[Footnote 110: _British Medical Journal_, December 10, 1921, p. 1016.]

[Footnote 111: _Common Sense on the Population Question_, p. 4]

[Footnote 112: Dr. C.K. Millard, in _The Modern Churchman_, May 1919.]

[Footnote 113: Reproduced in _The Declining Birth-rate_, 1916, p. 386.]

[Footnote 114: _Outspoken Essays_, 1919, p. 75.]

[Footnote 115: _Report_, p. 44.]

[Footnote 116: Ibid., p. 112.]

[Footnote 117: _Evening Standard_, October 12, 1921.]

[Footnote 118: October 15, 1921.]

[Footnote 119: _Man and Superman_, Act III, p. 125.]

[Footnote 120: _Sunday Express_, October 16, 1921.]

[Footnote 121: On becoming a Theosophist, Mrs. Besant retracted her approval of Neo-Malthusianism.]

CHAPTER IX

THE TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON BIRTH CONTROL

Section 1. A FALSE VIEW OF HER DOCTRINE

One of the marks of the Catholic Church, whereby she may be distinguished from all other Churches, is that her teaching is always clear and above all logical. Yet this fact has not saved her teaching from misrepresentation in the hands of Malthusians. For example, Dr. C. Killick Millard writes as follows:

"The Churches have taught that it was the divine wish that human beings should multiply and population increase--the more rapidly the better; the traditional authority for this being the instruction given to Noah and his family, after the Deluge, to 'be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.' The Churches have continued to teach that the duty of man was _to obey the divine command_ and still _to increase and multiply_, and until recently any attempt by married couples to restrict or regulate the birth-rate was denounced as sinful.

"This is still the orthodox att.i.tude, I believe, of the Roman Catholic Church, with its celibate priesthood; but, as it is clearly useless to reason with those who claim infallibility, it is unnecessary to discuss the question further so far as Roman Catholicism is concerned." [122]

Now, although it may be unnecessary for Dr. Millard to discuss the question further, he will, I am sure, regret having inadvertently misstated the truth. The Catholic Church has never denounced as sinful "_any_ attempt by married couples to restrict or regulate the birth-rate." On the contrary, the Catholic Church has taught, by her greatest doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, "that the essence of marriage is not primarily in the begetting of offspring, but in the indissoluble union between husband and wife." [123]

Section 2. THE ESSENCE AND PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE

There is an obvious distinction between the _essence_ of a thing and the _ends_ or purposes for which the thing exists. For example, in a business partnership the _essence_ of the partnership is a legal instrument, whereas the _purposes_ or _ends_ of the partnership are various commercial projects. The following is a clear statement, by Father Vincent McNabb, O.P., [124] of Catholic teaching concerning the nature and end of marriage:

"Marriage is an indissoluble state of life wherein a man and a woman agree to give each other power over their bodies for the begetting, birth, and upbringing of offspring. The natural and primary end of marriage is this duty towards offspring. But, as sin has despoiled the human will and disturbed human relations, marriage has now the secondary end of allaying s.e.xual l.u.s.t.

"But it is a principle of ethics that what is primary cannot be set aside as if it were secondary, nor can the secondary be sought as if it were primary. To invert the ethical order is to bring in that disorder which is called sin. If the human act brings in a slight disorder, it is venial sin; if the human act brings in a grievous disorder it is a grievous or mortal sin.

"It is a grievous disorder, and, therefore, a grievous sin, to desire satisfaction in such s.e.xual intercourse as could not result in the begetting of offspring.