Vatican Science Lessons

12 Jan 2009 07:23 am

Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, wrote in the the Vatican newspaper that "We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill." Saletan fisks this quackery:

Perhaps it's a sign of the modern age that moralists feel obliged to associate their principles with health effects. Abortion isn't just murder; it causes breast cancer and psychological damage to women. Contraception isn't just a violation of God's will; it's an environmental toxin. But none of these health claims has turned out to be valid. And in this case, the claim is so perfectly consistent with the history of misogyny—blaming men's fertility problems on women's sins and fluids—that it risks not just scientific but moral discredit.

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