Thursday, January 8, 2009

Co-Creator of "The Pill" Laments Demographic "Horror Scenario"

Lifesite News is reporting today that Carl Djerassi, the co-inventor of the first oral contraceptive looks back on his contribution to the culture of sex without consequences with regret and dismay:

Carl Djerassi wrote of his concern in a commentary appearing in the December issue of Austria's Der Standard, where he described couples who regularly contracept as "wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it."

Although a faculty member in the Chemistry Department, Djerassi taught reproductive politics at Stanford for decades and argued that "The Pill" was a force for the liberation of women. However, now he is seeing the long term effects on his native country when women do not reproduce at a replacement rate:
Lamenting that there is now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction," Djerassi said, "This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete. Most Austrians enjoy sexual intercourse without thereby wanting or begetting a child."

Djerassi explained that Austria, which is now home to more seniors over 65 than children under 15, would soon enter "an impossible situation" as the lopsided population would result in a working class too small to support the needs of elderly pensioners.



Hat Tip The Deacon’s Bench