III


BIRTH CONTROL


Not only because the subject of Birth Control occupies a very great
place in the public attention just now, but also because it does raise
very important and real questions for married persons I wish to speak
shortly of it here.

Some day, perhaps, the medical profession will do the public the great
service of issuing some authoritative statement about the physical
aspects of the matter, for there are issues with which only medical men
can deal wisely.

And yet it is far from being only or even mainly a medical question.
The moral and social issues involved in it are of great importance.

It is now a matter of common knowledge that it is possible for two
persons to live together in sexual intimacy and yet avoid having
children. And this has created new problems for the married and new
dangers for the unmarried. Probably it has had a great deal to do with
the recent increase of irregular sexual relationships outside marriage.
The women whose sole motive for chastity was the fear of having
children and so of being openly disgraced are now set free to sin
against the truth without fear of that particular penalty.

I am not, however, in the meantime concerned with them. It is the