Sir, - I would like to challenge Dr Desmond Connell to either produce some hard scientific evidence or else apologise to the children and parents of this country. Where is his evidence that children born in the "contraceptive era", including those from IVF and as a result of surrogacy are unhappy, resentful, or more rebellious as teenagers than children born prior to this era, which in Ireland started approximately 20 years ago? My three children are extremely happy, not in any way resentful and do not look to me or my wife like technological produce. I would agree with Dr Connell on one point: that our children were not welcomed as a gift. They were welcomed when born as people, new people, small people, little people, little babies. I do not consider them to be a gift from anything or anyone, including God.
I profoundly disagree with Dr Connell that the linchpin of sexual morality is the issue of contraception. The linchpin of sexual morality is consent between adults. It concerns itself principally with protecting children from abuse by adults, including those adults in a position of authority.
I would again fundamentally disagree with Dr Connell when he says that the approval of contraception led to a sexual revolution which has resulted in broken families, cohabitation and promiscuity. These issues have been around for as long as human beings. I would go further and suggest that promiscuity is a much more natural state for man and woman than monogamy. In contrast to Dr Connell's opinion again, contraception has allowed women to take control of their lives as they see fit. They no longer have to produce a baby every year for 20 years with all its attendant risks.
Dr Connell's statement that having sex while using contraception shows disrespect towards God finally lets us know where he is coming from. "God" is thrown in here as a given. The evidence for God is close to zero.
The evidence for Dr Connell's remarks, I would suggest, is similarly close to zero. As an experienced general practitioner, I find the children of today by and large very happy and well adjusted. I also find that their parents are very deeply concerned about their well-being, both physically and morally. My unhappy, resentful and angry patients come largely from the pre-contraceptive era. Almost on a weekly basis, I am told stories of the most appalling abuse and neglect experienced by people when they were children. I think maybe these children weren't wanted.
Dr Connell comes across as ignorant, superstitious and insulting. The self-appointed moral guardians of the Catholic Hierarchy should look to their own house first before criticising others. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Patrick J. Finn, Northside Surgery, Northside Shopping Centre, Dublin 17.