Letter: People forget that sex and procreation are connected

Editor,

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the United States Supreme Court stated that under the principle of the right to privacy, a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy. With this decision, a woman who is pregnant has three options: keep the child, give the child up for adoption or have an abortion.

In light of the multiple options available to women, some men are now demanding more reproductive rights. The National Center for Men has filed a lawsuit to appeal a court's decision ordering a father to pay child support for a child he did not want. The argument is that if a woman's right to privacy extends even to the right to terminate a pregnancy, a man's right to privacy should extend to the right to be excluded from financial responsibility for a child he did not intend to conceive.

At first glance, the argument seems to make a bit of sense, but at a deeper level one simply begins to wonder how people have reached such an inhumane state. Mothers are aborting their children and fathers do not want to support the children they helped create. On top of this, they demand the law sanction these so-called rights.

There are many causes for the downfall of the family. Some people blame hedonism - people caring only about what is sensual and pleasurable without accepting reality or responsibility for their actions. Others blame utilitarianism - treating human beings as objects to be used and exploited for one's own selfish interests and then tossing them away once finished with them. It doesn't take much observation of human behavior to see truth in both categories.

A more fundamental cause is that we have forgotten what it means to be male and female. The fullness of the person is no longer recognized, especially in the context of personal relationships and human sexuality. This is most evident in the fact that a person's procreative nature is rarely valued, but instead is avoided and suppressed.

This constant suppression has forced the human person's procreative nature into the subconscious or to the disease state to be treated with medicine. As a result of this, human life - a natural end of sexual activity - has become an object of contempt and an enemy to be guarded against.

Sex and procreation have been so separated in the minds and actions of people that one is actually confused and bewildered when a child is conceived. The man, the woman or both act as if something completely contrary to nature has occurred. They then demand that options be made available to free them from responsibility for their actions and their child.

People must practice responsible parenthood. However, it is becoming more obvious that responsible parenthood must be accomplished by recognizing one's full nature and by controlling oneself, rather than suppressing or eliminating an important part of the human person - our reproductive nature.

Benjamin Sanchez

UNM alumnus