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// Comments from the Fellows
Mark F. Stegman, M.D., FACOG, CFCMC
Challenges of Humanae Vitae
At the conclusion of his 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae Pope Paul VI issued challenges to various groups within society to come to the aid of married couples in their living out of Church teaching in their daily lives. One of those challenges, to ‘men of science', urged ‘that medical science should by the study of natural rhythms succeed in determining a sufficiently secure basis for the chaste limitation of offspring.' Over the ensuing four decades there has been tremendous development in our understanding and knowledge of the processes by which new human life comes to be, accompanied at the same time by great technological advances in our ability to manipulate these processes – as witness one need only mention IVF and similar assisted reproductive technologies, and the current debates over human cloning and embryo-destructive research. The technological advances have occurred within the mindset that accepts and endorses contraception with its diminishing of the dignity of human life, with the result that the users of these advances think nothing of using new human lives (embryos, even fetuses) as simply raw material for the achievement of their desires. As a further result of this mindset, the overwhelming majority of research efforts and of the knowledge gained from them has been applied to women's health and reproductive science from a very narrow perspective, one which looks at a woman's natural menstrual and reproductive cycles as unwanted, flawed, and a great nuisance.
Happily, there have been positive responses to Pope Paul VI's challenge to men of science. It is now possible for couples to understand ‘the conditions favorable to a proper regulation of births' and to easily use this understanding to live out the call to responsible parenthood in their married lives. Through the use of modern methods of natural family planning couples can easily achieve a chaste limitation of their offspring as they determine it necessary in their generous response to God's gift of life. Natural family planning enables the couple to do this in a fashion that is much healthier for the woman and the man on many levels: medical, physical, and even spiritual. Furthermore, the knowledge and information gained from the charting of the woman's fertility cycle can be used by the woman and her healthcare providers to evaluate and treat the majority of gynecologic difficulties in ways that work to restore normal health and function rather than suppress or subvert it, whether the problem be infertility, recurrent miscarriage, irregular or excessive menstruation, premenstrual syndrome, or ovarian cysts. Treatments for infertility undertaken in this way are more effective in achieving successful pregnancy outcomes, without the loss of so many lives that is inherent in the assisted reproductive technologies through the generation of excess embryos.
Much has been accomplished by a pioneering few. Much remains to be studied and researched. It is my fervent hope and prayer that the challenges issued by Pope Paul VI in Humanae vitae will continue to inspire new generations of scientists and doctors to extend and advance the work that has been done in our understanding of the beginnings of human life, and how this knowledge can be applied by couples to live out their married vocation. Even more, I hope that educators, priests, and couples themselves will respond to the challenge to spread and teach and promote what has been accomplished so far.
Dr. Mark Stegman, a senior fellow of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, is a Catholic physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, with a particular focus on evaluation and management of infertility, subfertility, and other women's health issues using methods that are fully respectful of the dignity of the woman, the man, and the child to be conceived, using the new science of NaProTechnology. He currently practices at the Center for Women's Health, a service of Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
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