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119  Any Kind od Contraception
     Is Probably Not `Natural'
     The Washington Post  Saturday, October 12, 1968

     Normal women of child-bearing age release an egg in a regular
monthly cycle.  That egg remains capable of being fertilized for only
a short time.  The fertile interval is not accurately known in man,
but observations on other animals suggest that it is between six and
30 hours.  

     These observations are, of course, the scientific basis of the
"rhythm method" of birth control.  The uncertainties about the exact
length of time that the unfertilized egg remains viable are 
overshadowed by uncertainties and irregularities in the longer viability
of sperm cells.

     Advocates of the method therefore warn that calculated period of
possible fertility may be as long as ten days. Not surprisingly, this
method has been less than statistically perfect in its actual 
application, and some women have cycles so irregular that they dare not
rely on it at all.

     The chief argument for the rhythm method is stated to be that it
minimizes interference with the natural biological process of the 
reproductive cycle.  My present discussion will focus on this issue in
view of the great attention that is being given elsewhere to other 
aspects of recent catholic doctrine.

     The classical experimental material for studying fertilization 
and the development of the embryo has been the frog's egg.  The female
frog sheds its eggs so that they are fertilized outside the body, a
process that obviously lends itself to experiments that are very 
difficult in mammals.

     As early as 1882, E. Pflueger discovered that eggs could be
"overripe"; that is, that eggs that for any reason were held back from
being shed gave off-spring with various obvious abnormalities.  Prof.
Emil Witschi, working at the State University of Iowa, has solidly
verified these studies and showed further than many of the malformed 
embryos from overripe eggs had chromosome abnormalities which might be
analogous to Down's disease in man.

     Studies on mammals are much more difficult, but several workers
have reported similar results with experimentally delayed fertilization
in rabbits and mice.  Most, but not all, of the affected embryos
failed at an early stage of development and would be classified as
spontaneous abortions.

     Similar hazards might obtain for human reproduction, according 
to recent speculations in Nature magazine by Dr. James German of 
Cornell Medical College in New York and Dr. J. P. Welch of Dalhousie 
University, Halifax. They argue that infrequent or mistimed coitus under
the rhythm system will increase the chances that an egg will be 
fertilized (if at all) during its dying gasp rather than during its 
prime of life when it ought naturally to be fertilized.

     Many developmental abnormalities might then ensue.  The worst
abnormalities are, of course, those that do survive till birth.  The 
existing statistics are very thin and much more research is needed to
justify either a bland confidence or a condemnation of the rhythm 
method on these grounds.

     The same theoretical suspicions attach to hormonal contraception,
the pill, which is, however, demonstrably safer in preventing 
pregnancies. We even lack convincing statistics on the absolute safety 
of mechanical methods, which are usually accompanied by sperm-killing
chemicals.  In fact, ordinary water is possibly just as injurious as
any other material.

     The main point now is whether we can call any deliberate action
"natural". Nature has its own wisdom,  but we challenge it in every act
of human will and intelligence and sometimes even by abstinence.


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