Condoms

[Didymus]

I'm doing an argumentative speech on how safe sex is a joke.

My question pertains to condoms, which I really don't know too much about. Do any condoms have warnings on them regarding their lack of giving full protection? Do any of them say something like Warning: This product does not guarantee full protection from HIV, HPV or whatever? Just wondering. I don't wanna get up in front of everyone and say something along the lines of "The condom companies don't even warn against the fact that these things aren't really that safe..." and then have someone be like, "uhhh, yeah they do come out and warn ya on the label..."

anyways, I hope I'm makin sense. If anyone could help, that'd be great...

[rachael]

i'm pretty sure it does say something to the effect of

'does not protect fully..."

Edited November 22, 2007 by rachael

[farglefeezlebut]

Here in the UK they are legally obliged to print such warnings (although they can probably get away with doing this in really tiny print, unlike warnings on cigarettes, which have to cover a certain percentage of the packaging - I think it's 25%, but could be wrong). I don't know about the law elsewhere.

However, the thing about "safe" sex is that even when condoms work (and in fairness, they do the majority of the time) is that it's only "safe" physically. It's not safe emotionally. It's not safe psychologically. It's certainly not safe spiritually and morally. I think you should focus on what sex "education" programmes largely or completely ignore - the wellbeing of the "participants" (beyond their physical health.) For example, masturbation is sometimes actively encouraged because it's "safe".

It is important not to be disengenous (sp?) So you should probably point out that advocates of "safe" sex do provide some discussion pf emotional and psychological issues. However, from what I've experienced, read and heard about, this is usually limited to someone telling you that you shouldn't have sex if you don't want to. Sometimes, they talk about your right to insist the other person respects you ( I have NEVER heard of any sex "education" programme, other than faith-based chastity programmes, which even mentions your obligation to respect the other person.) Love is usually treated as an "optional extra" rather than the reason for the act.

[Didymus]

i agree with everything you're saying, and I wish I could go into that much detail, but unfortunately I only have 5-7 minutes to cram this into, and so I was thinking about hitting the cold hard scientific facts, e.g. 3 or so STDs one could get even if they used a condom in normal 'protected' sex. I wish I could cover masturbation and other sex acts as well as the psychological effects and sex education, but I'm really limited on time.

The main reason why I chose this topic is because I'm starting a pro-life group on campus, and I want to start showing the reasons why real pro-lifers save themselves for marriage, so I know for sure I don't want to change my topic, but one of the things I was going to compare condom consumption to was cigarettes, and like you mentioned, how cigarette companies are obliged to tell the absolute truth on their cartons and packs, but condom companies can hide it so they can sell more sex.

The other way to compare the two is through the fact that we rarely hear or see any cigarette commercials anymore (at least not in the US) but anytime you wanna hear condom promotion, you can just turn on MTV or another station delving in the culture of death...

[cathoholic_anonymous]

[quote name='Didymus' post='1423751' date='Nov 22 2007, 11:52 PM']i agree with everything you're saying, and I wish I could go into that much detail, but unfortunately I only have 5-7 minutes to cram this into, and so I was thinking about hitting the cold hard scientific facts, e.g. 3 or so STDs one could get even if they used a condom in normal 'protected' sex. I wish I could cover masturbation and other sex acts as well as the psychological effects and sex education, but I'm really limited on time.[/quote]

Condoms provide protection against HIV 97 per cent of the time. (That does not apply to the poorer quality, heat-weakened condoms that are handed out in sub-Saharan Africa.) The figure is quite a bit lower for other STDs.

However, 97% is a strong figure. Your opponents could easily argue that it is better to have some protection than none at all, and bring in the argument that not every person who uses birth control has had multiple sexual partners and picked up a host of diseases. They will talk about people in monogamous, long-term relationships who use contraception, and point out that the 'safety rate' is much higher in these circumstances. If you make it sound as though the chance of contracting an STI is significant whenever people use condoms, your argument may be dismissed as ill-educated scaremongering.

Mention the dangers by all means, but I think your primary focus should be on the negative attitudes that come with contraception - for example, the temptation to see sex as a right and not a gift, even in faithful long-term relationships; the increase in psychologically damaging casual sex that was spawned by the wider availability of birth control; and the subsequent tendency to reduce it to a mere biological need, on a par with eating food or excreting. You also need to give your audience a sense of what sex can and should be like, and I think that this will be best achieved through taking this approach.

[Fidei Defensor]

They say "effective against pregnancy," like it's a disease or something.

[prose]

FULL protection from HPV?? They give basically NO protection from that OR Herpes because both are not on the penis.

[AlterDominicus]

This is cool because we just had a talk at Church on Sunday from Pen Stenzel. Listen carefully.

Condoms protect you from getting pregnant, NOT from STD's. There are 100 strains of HPV - there is a medicine that ONLY protects FOUR of those strains.

Just a little fact and for those of you arent aware there are 40 STD's.

[Didymus]

[url="http://rockforlife.org/know_contraception.php"]http://rockforlife.org/know_contraception.php[/url]

towards the bottom they talk about condoms

[allis-challmers]

the only safe sex is no sex. there is no controception that is totally effective.

[Norseman82]

You could go to a condom maker's website and see if they have any discalimers or warnings there.

[Ash Wednesday]

[img]http://www.newmediaist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/defective-condoms1.jpg[/img]

These say "Be safe, not sorry." No joke.

[RandomProddy]

[quote name='Cathoholic Anonymous' post='1423755' date='Nov 23 2007, 12:06 AM']However, 97% is a strong figure.[/quote]

95% is considered statistically significant, so 97% more so.

[quote name='allis-challmers' post='1423804' date='Nov 23 2007, 04:16 AM']the only safe sex is no sex.[/quote]

Life isn't solely about staying safe.

[Didymus]

[quote name='Cathoholic Anonymous' post='1423755' date='Nov 22 2007, 06:06 PM']Condoms provide protection against HIV 97 per cent of the time.[/quote]

So statistically speaking, one is at severe risk at least once out of every 50 times one uses a condom during sexual activity.

to really heed this stat, which even the Alan Guttmacher Institute uses, one should limit the number of times they have sex to less than fifty times in their entire life, lest they contract HIV and live with it the rest of their lives.

[Justin86]

[quote name='RandomProddy' post='1423943' date='Nov 24 2007, 03:28 AM']Life isn't solely about staying safe.[/quote]
Life isn't solely about sex either.

Condoms just encourage people to have sex thinking it's always successful againist STDs and pregancy however that's NOT the case. There is no 100% effective method againist either. I find it sad and disheartening that every time someone wants to point that out they immediately get belittled and demeaned as if they are either stupid for believeing it or is a compltely irrelevent point.

What about respect for our potential to be mothers and fathers? What about valuing our future children enough to wait till we're married and can bring them into a stable family?