Last night, I watched "Sunday's Best: Celebrating 40 years of CBS Sunday Morning" (one of my favorite television shows). In the course of the celebration, it was noted that the show shares its anniversary milestone with the birth of the first test-tube baby, and that got me to thinking about the topic of this post.
Think for a moment about what constitutes in vitro fertilization (IVF). It is a procedure that produces a human embryo without sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. IVF has been described as a five step process: 1) The taking of medication to stimulate female egg production; 2) The retrieval of those eggs through a minor surgical procedure; 3) A male contributing a sample of semen; 4) The egg and sperm are combined in a petri dish to encourage fertilization, or a sperm cell is directly injected into the egg; and 5) The resulting embryo(s) is(are) transferred into a woman's uterus for implantation. http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/ Notice again, there is NO sexual intercourse between a man and a woman.
Moreover, in the forty years since this procedure has been available, more than eight million babies have been born in this way! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180703084127.htm And the trend is for more frequent use of this procedure in the future. Millions of people walking around this planet whose origins are traced not to a bed (or the backseat of a car), but are instead traced to a laboratory!
When we add to this the knowledge that there are now folks alive on this planet who have the genetic material of three people (2 women supplying mitochondrial DNA and one man) thanks to modern science, and that human cloning is at least theoretically possible, we are forced to confront the fact that sexual intercourse is no longer an essential component of human reproduction! And what does that imply for our notions about the very purpose(s) of sex?
Many religious folks will tell you that procreation is the sole or primary purpose of sex. Psychologists tell us that human coitus has emotional, relational, social, spiritual and physical components. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/age-un-innocence/201307/purposes-sex And, whether or not most of us are cognizant of the fact, I think that most of us would be willing to acknowledge that the majority of human sexual activity is NOT motivated by (or concerned with) producing a baby!
Hence, if we take away procreation, what are we left with? When we strip away reproduction, human coitus takes on a whole new meaning doesn't it? Childless couples have always known that sexual intercourse has purpose(s) other than procreation. What do these facts imply for homosexual couples? What do these facts imply for the institutions of marriage and family? Maybe it's time we gave a little more thought to the purpose(s) of sex?
Think for a moment about what constitutes in vitro fertilization (IVF). It is a procedure that produces a human embryo without sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. IVF has been described as a five step process: 1) The taking of medication to stimulate female egg production; 2) The retrieval of those eggs through a minor surgical procedure; 3) A male contributing a sample of semen; 4) The egg and sperm are combined in a petri dish to encourage fertilization, or a sperm cell is directly injected into the egg; and 5) The resulting embryo(s) is(are) transferred into a woman's uterus for implantation. http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/ Notice again, there is NO sexual intercourse between a man and a woman.
Moreover, in the forty years since this procedure has been available, more than eight million babies have been born in this way! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180703084127.htm And the trend is for more frequent use of this procedure in the future. Millions of people walking around this planet whose origins are traced not to a bed (or the backseat of a car), but are instead traced to a laboratory!
When we add to this the knowledge that there are now folks alive on this planet who have the genetic material of three people (2 women supplying mitochondrial DNA and one man) thanks to modern science, and that human cloning is at least theoretically possible, we are forced to confront the fact that sexual intercourse is no longer an essential component of human reproduction! And what does that imply for our notions about the very purpose(s) of sex?
Many religious folks will tell you that procreation is the sole or primary purpose of sex. Psychologists tell us that human coitus has emotional, relational, social, spiritual and physical components. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/age-un-innocence/201307/purposes-sex And, whether or not most of us are cognizant of the fact, I think that most of us would be willing to acknowledge that the majority of human sexual activity is NOT motivated by (or concerned with) producing a baby!
Hence, if we take away procreation, what are we left with? When we strip away reproduction, human coitus takes on a whole new meaning doesn't it? Childless couples have always known that sexual intercourse has purpose(s) other than procreation. What do these facts imply for homosexual couples? What do these facts imply for the institutions of marriage and family? Maybe it's time we gave a little more thought to the purpose(s) of sex?
Sex has always seemed to me to be about bonding. It's "I love you, and this is only one of the ways I'm showing it."
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