Wow, now I've heard it all....

[badstar]

Uh, yeah. Riiiiiiiiiight.

"Contraceptive pill is polluting environment: Vatican newspaper"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090103/hl_afp/vaticanreligioncontraception_090103212901

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Saturday.

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

"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," he said, without elaborating further.

"We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers," added Castellvi.

The article was promptly dismissed by several organisations.

"Once metabolised, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones," said Gianbenedetto Melis, vice-president of a contraceptive research association, quoted by the ANSA news agency.

The hormones contained in the pill such as oestrogen "are present everywhere... in plastic, in disinfectants, in meat that we eat," added Flavia Franconi, of the Society of Italian Pharmacology.

Pope Benedict XVI in October reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's condemnation of artificial birth control.

Contraception "means negating the intimate truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift (of life) is communicated," the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics wrote on the 40th anniversary of a papal encyclical on the topic.

An encyclical is a letter usually treating some aspect of Catholic doctrine and issued occasionally by the pope.

The landmark document, whose title in English is "On the Regulation of Birth", was published at a time when the development of the Pill was giving new sexual freedom to women across the world.

Millions of Catholics distanced themselves from Rome as a result.

Oh good grief people, I'd say you were grabbing at straws, but there's nothing to grab at....

Comments

[neowiccan.livejournal.com]

there's a lot of evidence that the massive intake of drugs by americans is contaminating water supplies. it's just so ..... catholic.....for the vatican to single out birth control pills. how about antibiotics? ritalin? anti-depressants?
viagra?
all of 'em are becoming environmental pollutants.
@@
khairete
suz

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

I've got no problems with the idea male infertility. In fact, I'm all for it. First of all it will mean less need for chicks to be birth control, so yay! Secondly, maybe it will raise awareness of the roles men play in reproduction, so we can treat all men as "pre-pregnant" and forbid them from drinking, smoking, football, or any other fun thing that might damage their precious sperm. Hooray for finally having total reproductive control over men's bodies!! 'Bout time the tables were turned.

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

You know, that is a good idea. I mean, if women should live their whole lives in preparation for the apparently inevitable day that they will begin spitting out spawn left and right (as though that is our primary purpose, all we are good for, fuck off), then men should also be living their whole lives in preparation for the day they will begin fathering the spawn. They should have doctors and everyone else annoying and pressuring them about it, too.

[dubhlainn.livejournal.com]

*snort* gotta admit that I never expected that one!

[dubhlainn.livejournal.com]

LOL, I love it!

Gay guys can do all those things right?

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I suppose. Although there's always the risk one might one day wake up and realize that he's really bi, so.... no. No drinking, smoking, or fun of any kind. :-D

[dubhlainn.livejournal.com]

darn it!

[neowiccan.livejournal.com]

oops. accidentally sent message twice and don't know how to delete it!
now that's idiocy.
:D
khairete
suz

[fuego.livejournal.com]

You know, I've read a bit about that, but it's always been in respect to discarded pills dissolving and leaking into the ground and eventually the water, not about metabolized medication being flushed from human waste.

[theophania.livejournal.com]

lol these people need to write for The Weekly World News! Maybe, they can get in a spot next to Bat Boy and Elvis sightings. I do believe the pill can be very dangerous for some people, the patch even more so (not for religious but for health reasons). But this is pushing it!

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

But... but I can't wait to spit out spawn!! It's what I've always dreamed of, what I've lived for all these years.... *cries*

[http://users.livejournal.com/west_/]

its been well researched and publicized that in fact not *all* of any particular medication is metabolized/broken down.

this applies to all medication, including contraceptives.

thus, it can be true that:
1) non-metabolized hormone precursors eliminated into the water supply and recyled *are* toxic
AND
2) the vatican is full of evil asshats.

...the second point does not invalidate the first point.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Because, as we all know, the Vatican is the leading authority on science and ecology. -_-

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Blood pressure pills? Anti-psychotics? Epileptic medication?

The list goes on. As fuego said, it's mostly medication people aren't taking because they don't think they need it rather then metabolised medication. Besides which, they emulate female hormones, so what they're really doing is reinforcing the idea that women bits are destroying men. Makes you wonder if they're doing that part on purpose (probably).