On World Vasectomy Day, 16 live operations are streamed live on the net. WHO and Planned Parenthood see this form of contraceptive as the best way to cut health care costs. 'Caritas in Veritate' views the matter differently.

Adelaide (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Some of the catchphrases heard during last week's Science Exchange in Adelaide (Australia) on World Vasectomy Day include: "it doesn't hurt at all", it is "ten-minute", "You just get a little Band-Aid", it is "about half the cost of female sterilisation", and it reduces "maternal deaths".

The event's online streaming was the work of an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who also promoted his latest film, The Vasectomist. Indeed, all this was part of the latest fierce advertising campaign to convince men around the world to have a vasectomy, especially in countries like India and China and other developing nations.

The publicity stunt involved 16 volunteers who underwent a vasectomy before a live audience, during a performance streamed live over the Internet, in a campaign based on the idea that overpopulation causes underdevelopment.

Although there are many forms of contraception to lower population growth, the easiest one is vasectomy. For its promoters, with a single puncture to the tubes that carry sperm, underdevelopment is cut and the quality of the environment, polluted by too many humans, is improved. Women can thus break free from the bondage of pregnancy and the problems related to abortion and childbirth.

The reasoning behind this is based on the idea that human beings are a problem, and that the solution is not to have children. Contraception, whether in the form of pills, intrauterine devices, or female sterilisation, is of great help, but vasectomy is even better.

 Some scientists are very much in favour of vasectomy. Paul R. Ehrlich, 81, a population expert at Stanford University, is one of them. "Men of those countries [India and China] ought to be deliriously happy to spare their wives and girlfriends from carrying the load forever of contraception," he is quoted as saying in Bloomberg.

According to studies by Planned Parenthood, an organisation that seeks to control population growth through policies of contraception, vasectomy is the most effective means of contraception. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) shares that view, noting that vasectomy costs are half that of female sterilisation.

These views are based on the assumption that the world is experiencing a 'population bomb', a notion viewed with scepticism by many scientists and the Catholic Church.

Contrary to expectations dating back to the 1970s, the world's population is currently adjusting to lower growth. Actually, many countries are going through the opposite trend, that of 'demographic winter'.

China is one of them. Because of its one-child rule, it runs the risk of economic collapse for lack of people. In fact, many specialists on underdevelopment believe that many maternal deaths at the time of delivery could be avoided if pregnant women got better health services and families had access to cleaner water.

In the encyclical Caritas in Veritate, the anti-birth mind-set is equally criticised as a false factor in development (see n. 28).

• asia
• australia
• world
• vasectomy
• catholic
• church