Sexual Ethics and Environmental Ethics

“Going green” has been a major trend in the recent years. We hear about it every day in the media news coverage, religious leaders’ discourses and political campaigns. In the United States, we witness an increasing public consensus in the importance of preservation. There is a general awareness of how we as a society have disregarded Mother Nature in the last centuries due to the exploitation of her resources. When examining environmental ethics concerns, I find it hard to separate them from any other area of ethics. Whether I think about bioethics, political ethics or corporate ethics, there will always be an issue that will directly affect the natural environment. Our attitude and views on contraception and family planning, sex education, sterilization, gender equality will significantly impact our planet. It is in promoting a sustainable global culture that we can begin to change the damage we’ve made and provide the future generation with a healthy and safe place to live.
Overpopulation is in my view, the number one concern shared by sexual ethics and environmental ethics. Our blue planet is not able to sustain and feed a large number of people. The results of overpopulation are catastrophic to the natural environment. The list is long and includes: air and water pollution, resources depletion and degradation, climate change, toxic and nuclear waste, soil erosion, etc. One way to manage high increases in population is promoting a better understanding of family planning and contraception. In the developed world, we have witness a decrease in family size among the majority. Positive results are due to women’s education, their engagement in the work force and the easy availability and distribution of contraceptives methods, even when the Roman Catholic Church still proclaims the denunciation of their usage. However, in the developing world, much has to be done. Women lack basic education and accessibility and information about condoms, birth controls pills and IUD. Developed world programs intended to prevent population explosion and poverty are resented due to the belief that these programs camouflage imperialism and neo-colonialism (1). In other developing countries, where the government imposes programs to control and reduce population via methods of taxation and forced sterilization, the results are ineffective and controversial. In China, many women die from illegal abortions and many infants are killed due to the one-child policy. In India, when Indira Gandhi implemented a program that required sterilization of men after having a second child, many men accused the government of sterilizing people who had no children or were less educated and members of the opposition. That program backfired because it provoked Indian families to object the use of other methods of contraception and family planning (2). According to the United Nations Population Funds, every minute, 380 women become pregnant: half of them did not plan or wish the pregnancy;110 women experience a pregnancy-related complication;100 women have an abortion, of which 40 are unsafe;11 people are newly infected with HIV/AIDS;1 woman dies from a pregnancy-related cause(3).
It is imperative that we demand world leaders to create a comprehensive program to decrease or contain population growth that contain platform of gender equality and education. This program should focus on offering the public with information about their options of contraception reinforcing people’s rights to make their own decisions according with values and traditions of their culture.

References:
1 Christine Gurdof, Body Sex and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics, (1994) The Pilgrim Press: Page 33
2 UCLA Division of Social Science http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Independent/Indira.html
3 United Nations Population Funds, Annual Report, 2000, Reproductive Health: Meeting people’s needs, http://www.unfpa.org/about/report/2000/2ch1pg.htm