For Mark Lian, a fellow blogger about the Reproductive Health Bill he presented reasons and facts about going straight to the point of the RH Bill. He’s idea’s are the following:
Let us go straight away to what, for me, is the most significant means presented by the bill to attain its end, significant from the point of view of understanding the presuppositions of the bill especially with regards to human dignity and human actions. What is this means or, let say for our present context, “provisions”? We are presented an option to choose between the natural method of birth control and the “modern” or artificial method, and these methods are to be made available by the State. (Liam, 2011)
Three things can be observed here: (1) the options are presented as if they exist on the same line of value, that both options advance economics and health; (2) the options are presented as if they are a matter of individual personal choice only, that a woman can procure ligation even without the consent of the husband; (3) the options are presented as if the sexual act is simply a pleasurable act, that discipline is not absolutely necessary in it (since one may use contraceptives and thereby may not exercise continence) to make it a truly human act. (Liam, 2011)
On the same line of value-- it seems to me that RHBP is trying to tell us that the artificial method is as effective a means as the natural method in advancing economic prosperity to this country and good health to its citizens. Three essential points should be made here: first, while it is true that both methods have effects to economics and health, economics and health are not the only areas of human life that can be affected by these methods unless we are prepared to say that human beings are reducible to being only material bodies with more complex desires than the brutes; what I mean here is that the bill stands on a materialist conception of man. Second point, if indeed man is more than an economic living being, meaning that there exists in him ‘spirituality’ that defines the humanness of his humanity, this humanness of his humanity must be the source and end of his activities, including sexual activities. Third point, if our activities do not have this humanness of our humanity as their source and end, then these activities-- in the final analysis-- destroy themselves along with their effects, their supposed to be ‘good’ effects. (Liam, 2011)
On Individual Personal Choice—We are being told that a method of birth control can be procured without spousal consent. Again, we are seeing here the same materialist interpretation of human relations, especially that of marriage. If ‘having children’ is a mutual and joint decision of the couple, why is ‘not having them’ an individual separate choice? This way of thinking is understandable from the point of view of the one who separates the conjugal act itself from its natural fecundity, who separates the conjugal act from human love, and human love from the person. What is missing here is the understanding that the profoundest, the deepest, and the highest dimension, the only dimension worthy of the person as a person is that of love, which is the giving of one’s self as a free gift to another self, a gift that calls for mutual self-giving as well as mutual acceptance. (Liam, 2011)
On Discipline is not Absolutely Necessary—The one who separates procreation from the conjugal act, the conjugal act from human love, and human love from the exigency of personhood, is also the one who cannot understand the need for discipline in human love. Discipline, however, is necessary for self-control or self-mastery, without which one cannot hold himself and give himself to another person, one cannot love. Moreover, we cannot imagine a peaceful and orderly State with citizens who are unable to control themselves—a certain amount of virtue is necessary for a true society of persons. (Liam, 2011)
The spirit of the bill, in my opinion, can be stated briefly this way: that man is only a material being who lives only for himself in the context of his uncontrollable passions. (Liam, 2011)
Source:
http://fightrhbill.blogspot.com/2011/06/spirit-of-rh-bill.html
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