NATURAL LAW AND ARTIFICIAL CONTRACEPTION: A CRITICAL COMPARISON OF THE VIEWS OF THREE RECENT POPES, PAUL RAMSEY AND CHARLES CURRAN

The purpose of the dissertation is to make a comparative and critical analysis of the interpretation of the doctrine of natural law found in the writings of three recent Popes (Pius XI, Pius XII and Paul VI), Paul Ramsey and Charles Curran. The dissertation examines also the bearing of their interpretation of natural law on their respective positions on the question of artificial contraception.;The Pope's teaching on contraception is based on natural reason discovering the natural finality of the generative faculty which the Popes deem to be procreative. Contraception, by impeding procreation, frustrates, and vitiates the act of nature and goes against the intrinsic order of nature. The Popes, consequently, reject contraception as contrary to natural law.;However, the dissertation shows that the Popes' natural law argumentation against contraception does not convincingly prove their central assertion that every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life. Rather, the papal reasoning ends up deciding the debate by recourse to an argument from authority.;Both Ramsey and Curran argue against the natural law methodology of the Popes. Ramsey opposes their rationalistic and deductive understanding of natural law and the "republication" of natural law by the teaching authority of the Church. Ramsey develops instead a transformationist model of natural law which states that the intuitions of natural justice have to be transformed by Christ before they can find a rightful place in Christian ethics. Also, Ramsey bases his understanding of human parenthood on the biblical concept of agape in the form of covenant-fidelity between the parents and the child. Based on this, Ramsey states that love and procreation belong indefeasibly together not in every act of marriage, but between the two persons who are married. He therefore affirms that because contraception does not destroy the covenant between the parents (i.e., it does not separate radically their spheres of love and procreation), it does not go against the nature of human parenthood and, consequently, it can be morally justified.;The first chapter presents an overview of the history of the doctrine of natural law. Subsequent chapters examine the thinking of the Popes, Ramsey and Curran on natural law and on contraception. The final chapter presents a critical-comparative analysis of their interpretation of natural law and of how this interpretation influences their positions on contraception.;Curran's natural law methodology is relational and historical. He opposes both the physicalism associated with the teleological method of the Popes and the extreme eschatology present in Ramsey's deontology. According to Curran, the physical is only one aspect of the human action, and the moral character of contraception cannot be determined by this one factor, but by considering the act in its total concrete reality and relationships. He states also that humans have stewardship over their bodies and the generative processes. Therefore, by interpreting human sexuality in terms of its relationship to the total person, to the spouse or family, and to all of society, Curran concludes that the good of the individual and/or of the marriage itself can justify an intervention in the generative processes and, consequently, that there can be a moral justification for contraception.;The criticisms of natural moral law are examined throughout this study, and the dissertation ends by raising the question of the future of this doctrine. The author is confident that if natural moral law is interpreted in response to the personal and existential character of human nature and as rational reflection upon the experience of the human person, it will have credibility in our times and function as a true guide for human action.