Sheep's Intestines (July 29,2008)

Sheep's Intestines
By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia

Once upon a time in the 17th century, Charles II had a problem with his ever growing number of children. Unable to find a solution, he called for his physician Dr. Condom and asked him to prevent the increasing number of probable heirs to his throne. It is still uncertain if it were fairy godmother’s magic or the sparkle from Cinderella’s glass slippers that led Dr. Condom to discover that the intestines of lambs can prevent the excited wriggling sperms to infiltrate a woman’s vagina. From then on, condoms were mass produced in this libido oriented society, not any more from sheep’s guts but using vulcanized rubber and such are available in all leading drugstores worldwide. Interesting as the story may appear, condoms are still contraceptives. Condoms prevent the birth of unwanted children. Condoms are still inhibitory tools for fertility that has jeopardized not only a sheep’s digestive system but also the very foundations of human morality.

Some say that our country is growing more and more crowded each day, and counting all those mouths to feed during a never ceasing economic crisis, they believe we couldn’t get any more populated. I may not be a virtuoso in demographics, but this little head of mine assertively tells me that our country is not overpopulated. As I understand, we have to consider not just the number of people in that place but also the land area. We have 300,000 sq. km of land to spare and realistically speaking it is more than enough for some eighty plus million Filipinos. The problem is not all of this 300,000 sq. km of land is habituated by people causing visible congestion in the urban areas of our country. I am not proposing we force every citizen to live in equal proportions of land that would be too ideal. But, I am stressing the point that we are certainly not overpopulated; so why prevent innocent lives from coming to this tropical paradise we call the Philippines?

Most of our government leaders say that our resources are too deficient to satisfy the population. Life’s tough, I know. But, why decrease the recipients of these resources, can we not find ways to increase the resources itself? This notion of preventing fertility from increasing tells an agitated seventeen-year old, who has just seen a condom once in her life to believe that resources are far more important than the lives of the people supposed to receive them. But still many support the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2007 to be strictly enforced as an approved law. According to this bill, contraceptives shall be used as essential medicines being totally accessible with the belief of improving the quality of life of families. The lesser mouths to feed, the lesser the problem; this statement is certainly true and logical but this doesn’t give us the right to prevent the existence of life and most importantly endanger the much treasured moral values.

Those who are pro to contraception would say premarital pregnancies among unwed couples especially with the youth will eventually decrease due to accessibility to birth control pills, condoms, IUDs and diaphragms. Yes, it may indeed lessen premarital pregnancies but will it solve the case of premarital sex? Because of the assurance of being spared from the responsibility of bearing children, unwed couples would be even more enticed to have sex freely. The moral sanctity of sex, being a tool for procreation and a gift exclusive for legally wed couples has been diminished by some sheep’s intestine. However great and splendid the economic consequences of enforcing contraceptive usage may be, it doesn’t give even just a tiny drop of justification of preventing the life of innocent beings and loosing grip the very foundations of morality. This is more than just following religious rules and commandments. I don’t want to bring in religion as I may be biased to others’ beliefs. Rather, this is a moral issue that deals with a universal truth and decorum that life and its procreation is very precious and should be given high regard. Everyone knows and believes that killing an innocent life, or to the very least preventing an innocent life from taking place is unfair and unjust to such minute and helpless being.

Look at Singapore, its population density is 7,093 people living in a span of one sq. km. Look at the Philippines; our population density is 289 people per sq. km. We have much lesser population density than Singapore, but the economic progress of Singapore is by far exemplary and out of our third world league right now. This only shows that population has a minute effect on the economic progress of a country. The distribution of resources needs to be taken care of, not the people receiving them. Food can still be bought even after it spoils but lives can never be revived after it ceases or wasn’t even given a chance to exist.

Let us be more practical and moral about our decisions. Life is not a matter of control; it is given as a gift. You might not know the innocent baby who was prevented to be born could have been the deliverer of the struggling nation.

Morality is far more important than sheep intestines.
Save Lives.