Madam, - Father Seamus Murphy is a philosopher for whom I have considerable respect, but I am always wary when philosophers stray into the area of theology. Their concern is with the internal coherence of the argument, irrespective of the relevance this may have for the dilemmas facing real people in a real and often hostile world. On the issue of promoting condoms to limit the spread of AIDS, Father Murphy is wrong for a number of reasons (Rite and Reason, March 1st).
He refers to the principle of double effect. Briefly, this is a tool designed and used by Catholic theologians to assist moral evaluation when two results follow an action, one good the other bad. It cannot, therefore, apply to Father Murphy's example about the car bomb where, at the very least, the driver was going to be killed. No good was going to result from that act. In the case of promotion and use of condoms, the prevention of conception is considered by the Catholic Church to be wrong, the limitation of the spread of AIDS to be good. As the original contributor to the discussion, Father Michael Kelly, SJ, suggested, the fact that Pope Paul VI confirmed the anovulant pill could be taken to "cure diseases of the organism" even though it acted at the same time as a contraceptive, can be seen as morally parallel.
We live at a time when at least 20 per cent of the population of most sub-Saharan African countries are HIV positive, that figure rising to 39 per cent in some countries (The Irish Times, Health Supplement, February 17). There are 8,000 new cases daily. Eastern Europe and Central Asia appear to be heading in the same direction. We cannot ignore this human tragedy. On foot of the best information available, we must respond.
From reading extensively on the topic, from discussion with people active on the ground, and from statements by WHO and UNAIDS, I believe the promotion of condoms helps to limit the spread of the infection and should therefore be encouraged. Condom use need not be and should not be the only response to the disaster. Education concerning the importance of a monogamous lifestyle and the necessity of removing the stigma attached to sufferers, also has a significant role to play. Education on these issues, together with the promotion of condoms, appears to have led to a decrease in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Senegal and Uganda.
I am disturbed also by Father Murphy's understanding of marriage. By posing the question whether sexual abstinence by a HIV-positive husband is more loving than sex with a condom, he indicates an approach to marriage which went out of Catholic thinking with the second Vatican Council. The Council recognised that sex in marriage is about more than procreation or assuaging the sexual lust of the husband. It recognised the enjoyment and comfort that sexual intercourse brings to wives as well as husbands and the benefits it brings to a marriage. The fact that a spouse is HIV-positive may make that comfort and affirmation of even greater significance. - Yours, etc.,
ÁILÍN DOYLE, Lecturer in moral theology, Milltown Institute, Dublin 6.