The Pope's stance on AIDS

The Pope says condoms not answer to fighting AIDS

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090317.wpope0317/BNStory/International/home

I am quite disturbed by this statement, not because of any personal views but because of the severe consequences this can have on the battle against AIDS. Progress can be seriously hindered and the situation could get potentially worse, all because of one religion’s biased interpretation of ethics. The statement that condoms “increase the problem” is downright false, and we already have far too much false sexual health information circulating around areas that are heavily infected with AIDS. Yes, maybe condoms are not THE solution, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t PART OF the solution, and we need as many mechanisms at work as possible to combat a disease as widespread as this.

I personally think the pope is a good person with good intentions, and of course he would not want to make a public statement that supports the use of something which the Catholic church has a general consensus against, but he must take into consideration the impact of his statements, and how powerful his voice is to those who take him seriously.

Abstinence only sex education clearly does not work, and I don’t know why the Catholic church can’t just get over itself and accept this. It is irresponsible to prepare youth with insufficient knowledge when you know that they may not accept and follow your teachings. To blindly teach the same ineffective curriculum year after year not only doesn’t make sense, but it shows that you clearly do not have the ability to evolve and keep up with current social situations, which means you are incompetent to be teaching youth.

It is positive that the Catholic Church is helping with the AIDS situation in Africa (although I am generally suspicious of all religious-based aid or development), but to really help, they must keep up with modern health standards rather than trying to impose their own moral standards on communities of people. Anyone can just go to Africa and tell people that if they don’t want to get aids they shouldn’t have sex, but that is a judgemental and unreasonable request that people aren’t likely going to follow through with. It doesn’t give people the knowledge or tools to make their own informed choices; it presents them with only one decision which has already been made for them, and if they don’t follow this decision, they don’t have the knowledge to protect themselves in other ways. I encourage abstinence to be taught alongside other alternatives, and can even be emphasized, but it should never be taught alone, as that does not fully educate the person and leaves them vulnerable and lacking in information.

This type of biased help is similar to conditional aid, in which a country or institution will lend money to another country in need, but in order to get the money they must follow a set of conditions, which often means making changes to their economic structures and government. This gives the lender power over them, and means that in order to get much needed money, they must give up some of their own independence and follow the rules of someone that doesn’t necessarily know what is best for them.

The pope is basically saying “I’ll help you, but we’re going to do it my way”, rather than looking at what would actually be best for the people of sub-Saharan Africa and have the most effective results to prevent AIDS.

I’m hopeful that the nurses, doctors and volunteers that are actually working directly with people will use their own common sense and make a far less selfish decision when directing help towards people.