Vatican Pseudoscience
Amongst the rubbish that has come out of the Vatican of late we have this gem:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/04/1231003847091.html
In brief, the article says that the pill is causing male infertility by feminising men. Castellvi's claims are based on research from Canada by Dr Karen Kidd that showed estrogen was affecting fish numbers because of male feminisation.
Three points are relevant here, firstly, as the article says, estrogen is found in all sorts of things, from plastics to meat (to say nothing of the estrogen that naturally occurs in women's urine). Secondly, the Vatican makes no mention of the other main source of artificial medical estrogen - HRT and finally according to the researcher herself, the problem is not the pill, the problem is lack of proper water treatment. Once secondary or tertiary water treatment is applied, the problem goes away.
You can read Dr Kidd’s findings for yourself here.
Having dispensed with its pseudoscience will the Vatican now retract this claim as a rationale for banning the pill for Catholics? I doubt it. The Vatican’s objection to the pill is not environmental, it’s religious. If it can find some other reason to back up this objection so much the better for it but that will only ever be secondary. Whilst it’s free to have its views on contraception, it should not misuse science to back them up.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/04/1231003847091.html
In brief, the article says that the pill is causing male infertility by feminising men. Castellvi's claims are based on research from Canada by Dr Karen Kidd that showed estrogen was affecting fish numbers because of male feminisation.
Three points are relevant here, firstly, as the article says, estrogen is found in all sorts of things, from plastics to meat (to say nothing of the estrogen that naturally occurs in women's urine). Secondly, the Vatican makes no mention of the other main source of artificial medical estrogen - HRT and finally according to the researcher herself, the problem is not the pill, the problem is lack of proper water treatment. Once secondary or tertiary water treatment is applied, the problem goes away.
You can read Dr Kidd’s findings for yourself here.
Having dispensed with its pseudoscience will the Vatican now retract this claim as a rationale for banning the pill for Catholics? I doubt it. The Vatican’s objection to the pill is not environmental, it’s religious. If it can find some other reason to back up this objection so much the better for it but that will only ever be secondary. Whilst it’s free to have its views on contraception, it should not misuse science to back them up.