Madam, - Mrs Mary Stewart (November 25th) contends that the contraceptive pill conveys a message to men that women can now be seen as sex toys and available to them at all times without fear of pregnancy!
Surely marriage has always conveyed to a husband that his wife is a sex object and as such is available to him. Before the advent of the pill wives had no foolproof method of contraception and very many were forced to produce more children than they could in all fairness be expected to care for properly.
My mother had nine children. So it must be understood that the subject of contraception is of more than academic interest to my being a so-called "liberal" Catholic today.
If the conservatives in the Catholic Church have their way and contraception becomes taboo again, then I think marriage will become even less attractive than it is already to many young people. Young people may be a lot of things, but they are not stupid! Thank God! There is hope for us all yet if we learn to keep an open mind and trust in the innate good sense of our offspring, male and female. - Yours, etc.,
IRENE REDMOND, Granville Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.