[Taxacom] Pro-natalism vs. biodiversity

[Richard Jensen]

Dear Ken and others,

Will sexism never die? Why must it be the woman's responsibility to 
ensure that the man has a condom? Educating women works and, according 
to just published studies, teaching abstinence can have an important 
effect.

I'm not opposed to contraception and I don't buy in to the "just say no" 
policies that many think are all that's necessary. But I object to the 
suggestion that women must provide condoms for the men in their lives. 
We should produce enough condoms so that every sexually active male has 
a ready supply and then make sure they use them! How that can be 
accomplished is another matter, but let's put the responsibility where 
it belongs - squarely on the shoulders of men who expect women to engage 
in sexual activities with them.

Dick J

Richard Jensen, Professor
Department of Biology
Saint Mary’s College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Tel: 574-284-4674



Kenneth Kinman wrote:
> Dear All,
>       Educating more of the world's women would probably be helpful, but
> ONLY if they also have access to a ready supply of condoms (and
> willingness of their sexual partners to use them).   The world
> production of condoms is about 12 billion per year, and assuming that
> there are close to 2 billion sexually active males in the world, that is
> only 6 condoms per year for each male. 
>        Even if you assume a more conservative estimate of 1 billion
> males having sex with fertile females, it still would only be an average
> of one condom per month for each of them.  Hardly enough to prevent
> unwanted pregnancies (not to mention STDs).  Even cheap condoms at two
> cents apiece, a billion dollars would buy 50 billion such condoms, which
> could easily prevent hundreds of millions of unwanted pregnancies and
> new cases of STDs every year.  
>       Preaching abstience is clearly not going to have much of an
> impact, but making plenty of condoms freely available to the world's
> women would make a HUGE difference.  The most effective way to curb
> population growth is to be proactive and eliminating most unwanted
> pregnancy.  Condoms would also reduce a lot of human misery by reducing
> disease, reducing food shortages, reducing overcrowding and other
> stresses.  Pouring money into vaccines and medical supplies is fine, but
> it's really short-sighted if one doesn't invest in lost-cost condoms at
> the same time.  
>            ------Ken Kinman
>        
>
>
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