5.  Argument 4:  Traditional Sexual Morality:  An Appeal to Consequences

5.1  The Argument

        Two important conclusions seem plausible in the light of the preceding discussion:

(1)  Principles dealing with sexual behavior cannot be basic moral principles: they must instead be derived.

(2)  If sexual behavior of a certain sort is morally wrong, it cannot be that it is intrinsically wrong: it must be wrong because it has, or is likely to have, bad consequences.

        If these conclusions are right, then the way of argue for a traditional position on sexual morality is by contending that sex outside of marriage will have bad consequences that outweigh any good consequences.  So let us see how such an argument might be developed.

5.1.1  A Letter to Ann Landers

ANN LANDERS

Safe Sex

Teens need to get the message

DEAR ANN LANDERS:  I am sending an article from the Los Angeles Times that could save thousands of lives.  It was written by Dr. Steven Sainsbury of San Luis Obispo, California.  It's too long for your space, but I hope you will print as much as you can -- Faithful Reader.

Dear Faithful:  Thank you so much.  Here is an edited version:

"My 15-year-old patient lay quietly on the gurney as I asked the standard questions: "Are you sexually active?'  She said, 'Yes.'  Next question: 'Are you using any form of birth control?'  The response was 'No.'  Next question: 'What about condoms?'  Response, 'No.'

"Her answers didn't surprise me.  She has a rip-roaring case of gonorrhea.  It could easily have been AIDS.  I treat teenagers like this one every day.  Most are sexually active.  Condoms are used rarely and sporadically.

"Yet in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, I continue to hear condoms being touted as the solution to HIV transmission.  Condoms are being passed out in high schools, sold in college restroom dispensers and promoted on TV.  The message is: Condoms equal safe sex.

"As a physician, I wish it were true.  It isn't.  It is a dangerous lie.

"Fact No. 1:  In 1989, a survey among college women, a group we presume to be well-informed on the risks of herpes, genital warts, cervical cancer and AIDS, showed that only 41 percent insisted on condom use.  If educated women can't be persuaded to use condoms, how can we expect teenagers to do so?

"Fact No. 2:  Condoms fail frequently due to improper storage, handling and usage.  The breakage rate during vaginal intercourse is 14 percent.  For a person who averages three times a week, a 14 percent breakage rate equals a failure nearly every two weeks.

For condoms to be the answer to AIDS, they must be used every time, and they can never break or leak.  So what's the answer?  The only answer is no sex until one is ready to commit to a monogamous relationship.  The key words are abstinence and monogamy.

"I can hear the moans.  Condom fans murmur words like unrealistic, naive and old-fashioned.  Well, perhaps what is needed to stem the tide of AIDS and unwanted pregnancies is a return to those old-fashioned concepts.

"To quote Dr. Robert C. Noble, a University of Kentucky infectious disease expert, 'We should stop kidding ourselves.  There is no safe sex.  If the condom breaks, you may die.'"

5.1.2  Strengthening the Argument

How does Ann Landers respond to this argument?  In precisely the right way, I believe.  But I want to leave her response until later.  First, I want to sketch some of the facts that one might appeal to in order to strengthen the argument

5.1.2.1  The Situation in America:  Some Relevant Facts

Here are six considerations that seem to show that either premarital sex, or homosexual sex, have consequences that are very bad indeed:

1.  High Rate of Births to Unmarried Women

Fact:  It was predicted that of the approximately 4 million children that would be born in the United States in 1995, at least 30% - that is, 1.2 million - would be born out of wedlock.

Fact:  Most of those children will grow up without fathers.

(Source:  Colorado Daily item, February 17-19, 1995.

2.  Negative Effects Associated with Single Parent Families

"According to one study, kids from single-parent families, whether through divorce or illegitimacy, are two to three times as likely to have emotional or behavioral problems, and half again as likely to have learning disabilities as those who live with both parents."  (Colorado Daily item, February 17-19, 1995)

3.  Spread of STDs, including AIDS

Fact:  In San Francisco, where half of the male gay community either have AIDS, or are HIV-positive, the rate of new infections, after dropping to 1% in 1985, "has nudged back up to 2 out of 100 now, and is twice that high among men younger than 25."

Fact:  One out of three gay men in San Francisco now engage in unsafe sex.

(Source of the preceding two facts:  The Sunday Camera, December 12, 1993)

Fact:  A survey of college women, in 1989, "showed that only 41 percent insisted on condom use."

Fact:  "The breakage rate of condoms during vaginal intercourse is 14 percent."

(Source of the preceding two facts:  A letter written by Dr. Steven Sainsbury, and published, in an edited version, in an October 24, 1993, Ann Landers column.)

Fact:  "Teenagers [in the United States] are contracting the AIDS virus at an average rate of more than one an hour, and of the 40,000 to 80,000 Americans that become infected with the AIDS virus each year, one in four is a teenager."

(Source:  An Associated Press article based on the report by the White House Office of AIDS Policy.)

Fact:  "Five times as many Americans have died of AIDS as were killed in the Vietnam War."

Fact:  "AIDS has become the leading cause of death among all adults between 25 and 44 and is now ranked sixth among fatal diseases in people under age 65."

4.  The High Frequency of Abortion.

Fact:  Of couples who use male latex condoms, the rate of pregnancy in "typical" use is 15% per year.

(Source:  An advertisement for the "Reality Female condom" in the Colorado Daily, January 17, 1995.  The pregnancy rate for the latter is 25% per year in "typical" use.)

5.  The High Financial Costs to Society of Sexual Promiscuity

Fact:  It costs about $100,000 to treat an AIDS patient.

(Source:  The Sunday Camera, December 12, 1993)

6.  Premarital Promiscuity and Subsequent Adultery?

        Suppose that one has had a number of sexual partners before marriage.  May it not be the case that that makes it difficult, at least for a significant number of people, to commit themselves to a single sexual partner within marriage?  Isn't it likely, then, that sexual promiscuity before marriage will make adultery more likely, and thus contribute to an increasing breakdown of marriage, with all of the emotional turmoil and suffering typically associated with divorce?

5.1.2.2  The Situation in Africa, and Elsewhere

The CBS television show "Sixty Minutes" had a program that dealt with AIDS in Africa - the show was entitled "Death by Denial".  Here is a brief summary of their report

1.  A Summary View:  AIDS in Africa, and Worldwide

1.  Every minute, 11 people in the world are infected with HIV, 8 of them in Africa.

2.  In Africa today, AIDS is killing 23 million people.

3.  The proportion of adults who are infected by AIDS is 1 in 5 in South Africa, and 1 in 4 in Zimbabwe.

4.  Less than 1/10th of 1% of those who have AIDS in Africa receive the drugs they need.

5.  Ed Bradley:  "If the epidemic continues on its current path, 10 years from now 100 million people around the world will have been infected with HIV."

1.1  South Africa

1.  1600 people are infected with HIV every day.

2.  1 in 5 adults will die from AIDS.

3.  1 in 3 pregnant women with AIDS passes it on to her baby.

4.  Each week, 290 babies who are a year older or younger die from AIDS.

5.  In the case of children in a hospital ward, it is rare to find a child that does not have AIDS.

6.  In spite of these facts, virtually no one in South Africa talks about AIDS.

7.  The president of South Africa does not think it has been established that HIV causes AIDS.

8.  The drug AZT blocks the transmission of AIDS from pregnant women to their babies about half the time.

9.  If AZT were dispensed to all pregnant women, up to 50,000 babies a year could be saved.

10.  Only about one pregnant woman in 1000 is treated with AZT.

1.2  Zimbabwe

1.  About 25% of adults in Zimbabwe are infected with HIV.

2.  In some regions of the country, approximately 45% of the adults are infected with AIDS.

3.  This is true of women as well as men, so that almost 1 of 2 expectant mothers test positive for HIV.

4.  The pattern is one where families are being wiped out by AIDS.  Typically, the husband dies first, then the wife, and then the children.

5.1.3  Summing Up

The idea of a sexual revolution may initially have seemed very attractive: the double standard would be thrown out, and all people, both men and women, would be able to enjoy lives that contained more pleasure.  Unfortunately, now that the evidence is in, we can see that the outcome has been disastrous in a number of ways, and has led to enormous suffering - suffering that is clearly not outweighed by the increase in pleasurable experiences.  There is, then, only one realistic conclusion: society needs to return to a traditional view of sexual morality, and, in particular, needs to reject premarital sex, homosexual sex, and sex with prostitutes.  Nothing else can cure these ills from which we currently suffer.

5.2  A Response to the Argument

5.2.1  Possible Responses:  What Are the Options?

How might one respond to this argument?

(1)  One response is that if people decide to engage in risky sexual behavior, that's their business.  They know the risks, and they know the benefits, and each person should be allowed to decide for himself or herself whether the gains are worth the risks.  If someone decides that they are, and that person then suffers harm because of the decision that he or she has freely made, then that's unfortunate, but it's no reason to hold that the person in question would have been better if he or she hadn't had the freedom to make that decision.

(2)  A second response, and probably the most common one, is that education is the answer, and that, in particular, education about the dangers, together with widespread encouragement of the use of condoms, will enable one to eliminate, or at least minimize, the problems.

        What is one to say about these responses?  Neither seems to me convincing.  The problem with the first response is simply that those who are affected by risky sexual behavior are not just those who choose to engage in sexual behavior.  For, first of all, such behavior results in a large number of illegitimate children, and such children fare less well than those born to married couples.  Secondly, the harm that results from sexually transmitted diseases if often not confined to the person who engages in the risky behavior, as the case of Africa illustrates: the explosion of AIDS cases within the heterosexual community originates with men having sex with prostitutes, but the disease is then passed along to the wives, and then to newborn babies.  Risky sexual behavior, in short, harms the innocent.

        What about the second response?  I don't think this response is satisfactory either, for a number of reasons.  In the first place, the pregnancy rate for condoms, as typically used, is 15% per year.  (Source:  An ad for "The Reality" female condom.  "Now, even if he's not using condoms, you can.")  With 1 in 250 Americans with AIDS, this probably translates to something of the order of a 1 in 2000 chance of contracting AIDS each year, which seems unacceptably high.

        Secondly, even among college students, consistent use of condoms is not very common.  According to a 1990 survey of 5,500 first-year students that was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, only about 19% of women with one or two sexual partners always used condoms, and only about 28% of men with one or two partners.  If this is the situation in the case of the most intelligent and best-educated section of the community, the prospects do not seem especially bright.

        Thirdly, the average age at which girls first have sexual intercourse has fallen quite dramatically - from about age 20, 25 years ago, to about age 16 now.  So more and more women are engaging in potentially risky behavior at younger ages, and it is surely unrealistic to expect consistent use of condoms by those in their early teens.

5.2.2 Ann Lander's Response

        What is Ann Lander's answer?

        Perhaps surprisingly, it is as follows:

Dear Readers:  Powerful piece, isn't it?  Well, now I am going to stick my neck out by suggesting a far more realistic solution than abstinence.

The sex drive is the strongest human drive after hunger.  It is nature's way of perpetuating the human race.  Males reach their sexual peak as early as 17.  There must be an outlet.  I am recommending self-gratification or mutual masturbation, whatever it takes to release the sexual energy.  This is a sane and safe alternative to intercourse, not only for teenagers, but for older men and women who have lost their partners.

I do not want to hear from clergymen telling me it's a sin.  The sin is making people feel guilty about responding to this fundamental human drive.  I love my readers, and my mission is to be of service.  This could be the most useful column I have written since I started 38 years ago.
 
 

Creators Syndicate

(Daily Camera, October 24, 1993.)
 
 

5.2.3  The Case for Masturbation

Thesis

It's best, all things considered, to treat masturbation as one's central form of sexual activity, and to substitute other types of sexual activity only when there is a very clear case that can be made out for doing so.

The Advantages of Masturbation

1. It's a quick and convenient way of relieving sexual frustration, and of adding pleasure to one's life. (Compare the time-consuming nature of dating games, etc..)

2.  It does not lead to the spread of venereal disease.

(These first two points call to mind a story about an Oxford philosopher, Michael Oakeshott.  Oakeshott found himself in the position of having to give some advice to a student on sex, and is purported to have said something along the lines of:

"It's probably best to stick to masturbation.  It's safer, quicker, and you meet a better class of person"!)

3. It's an inexpensive way of enjoying sexual pleasure.

4. It does not result in pregnancy. (Teenage pregnancies often have serious consequences, both for the teenager who may wind up raising a child at quite a young age, and for the child thus raised, since the conditions are often ones of poverty.)

5. Because it does not result in pregnancy, it also decreases cases in which people marry for bad reasons.

6.  Because it decreases the frequency with which people marry for bad reasons, it also reduces the rate of divorce - a rate that is especially high in the case of teenage marriages.

7. In so doing, it also decreases the cases in which people are raising children when they are not really interested in doing so.

8.  Because it decreases the frequency of unwanted pregnancy, it also decreases the frequency of abortion.  This is a crucial consideration if one believes that abortion is seriously wrong.  But it has some weight even if one holds that abortion is not morally wrong.  For abortion can have complications, and if the woman having the abortion has doubts about the view that embryos/fetuses do not have a right to life, the decision to have an abortion may result in some negative feelings afterward.

9.  It makes it easier for men and women to interact as friends, by lessening the likelihood that one sex will view members of the other sex as simply sexual objects, or as possible conquests. It will therefore decrease the extent to which people play various "games" in interacting with members of the opposite sex.

10. It will make it less likely that people will "prostitute" themselves, in the sense of spending time with boring people in order to enjoy some sexual pleasure, etc.

11. It will help one to become a sensual person - a person who can accept sexual pleasure as such, and who does not need to construct some "deeper" rationale.  In contrast, if one's sexual experiences are mainly confined to sex with other people, it is possible that one will never move beyond a romantic view, according to which sex is not really a good idea unless it is endowed with some sort of deeper meaning.

        In this section, I have been focusing upon masturbation as a do it yourself activity.  But many, though not all, of the points support mutual masturbation as well.

5.3  Summing Up

        What I take to be the correct response to the consequentialist argument for traditional sexual morality is, in short this.  The argument is right that the sexual revolution has had some very unfortunate consequences, and that those undesirable consequences are not outweighed by the benefits.  But the answer is not a return to traditional sexual morality.  The answer is masturbation, either mutual or do it yourself.