Contraception: Natural, Artificial, Moral

The moral permissibility of contraception as the method of birth control or conception avoidance is closely related to the issue of procreative autonomy, that is, the question whether a person may decide freely to have or not to have children, when and how many. The development of medical and scientific technologies increases procreative autonomy in terms of conception and birth planning by biotechnological interventions before and during a sexual intercourse. In the first part of this article, I give a brief account of bioethical arguments that can be mobilized against moral acceptability of contraception. In the second part, I compare these arguments with those raised in procreative view of sexuality against the use of unnatural contraceptives. Finally, in the third part, I critically analyze the stance according to which a device employment is sin against nature and I argue that the approving of infertile times (safe days) method of conception avoidance while prohibiting all others is inconsistent.