THE ISSUE:
Sex. Apparently its something we can't live without. By we, I don't mean me, I might be generalizing a little. While taking a survey last week online I was asked why I don't have sex. It seems like abstinance these days isn't very well accepted. Why? I have no idea. If you think about it. It makes far too much sense.
Economic Issue: An article written about in my college daily news paper a few years ago had to do with the availability of condoms on campus. When the writer was sick with a cold, he called Health Services and asked if they had cough drops or tissues for distribution. No. So the question is, why is our tuition money paying to provide people with unlimited free condoms? But not just condoms, flavored condoms, textured condoms, difference sized condoms?
When we consider that the school does not have free products to help prevent sicknesses that people have no control over, like the flu or a cold, but provides students with condoms, something doesn't add up. People need to start being responsible and if they need condoms, buy them, don't make me buy your supply with my tuition money. Or better yet, take a chill pill and practice the easiest and cheapest form of birth control, abstinence.
Environmental Issue: Second, not only should people be buying their own "necessary" prevention, if I have to for my common cold, but most forms of birth control are terrible for the environment. Obviously condoms are not exactly Mother-Earth friendly, but how about oral contraceptives? Not only do they affect the fertility of the human user, but as it turns out, many fish have issues reproducing due to the estrogen that leaks into the waterways from human waste. As it turns out, and I can see it being a legal issue in the future. Companies should be held responsible and PAY for these wastes being emmited from their products that are effecting our ecosystem. They also be required to place a warning on their labels explaining the risks to the environment because OUR body are not the only concern, as everything comes full circle.
If you're really not digging the fish example, how about the use of horses in the production of oral contraceptives? The estrogen is from the urine of pregnant horses. Now if that doesn't put a bad taste in your mouth, these baby horses are killed at birth because they are essentially useless. While I believe this is illegal in the U.S. these days, it is not in other countries. Just because it isn't being done here, doesn't mean it isn't being supported here through purchasing and use of these pills. Thankfully there are places that adopt the horses to people to save them as oppose to slaughtering them.
The point? You don't just effect you. Think about it...
Some simple answers.
ReplyDeleteSTDs > the common cold
We can't really prevent the common cold from spreading around campus, but we can prevent a widespread STD outbreak.
Something else interesting to note is that during flu season (especially last year) they offered a massive amount of vaccines. As all students are required to have health insurance, either through family or through the school, is this necessary? By asking whether the school should fund this, you're just opening a massive can of worms and we can argue to no end that's worth spending tuition money on.
I'm not arguing because I disagree, I just think this is grounds for some excellent discussion, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste =) (SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OHOOO)
Also, I could see you going totally vegan in 5 years.
It is excellent discussion. We should have one. And it should occur in the music building. In the hallway. At about 1 am. Okay done.
ReplyDeleteWhere I don't entirely agree with everything, you do make some good points.
ReplyDeleteOf course, just having pharmaceutical companies PAY for the problems their chemicals cause isn't enough. I mean, cash can't sop up chemicals from ocean. Then again, that cash would go somewhere, like producing efficient methods to treat the chemicals in waste water or filtering them out.
And oral contraceptives aren't necessarily used strictly to prevent conception. Some people have 'legitimate' uses other than birth control. (I only use 'legitimate' because people survived many issues without pharmaceuticals for centuries in the past, haha).
However, sex generally is an important part of most long term relationships, and pregnancy is usually not the desired result.
However, I feel we need to be reproductively responsible... and abstain from reproducing (only to a degree) for the sake of carrying capacity and using resources on the planet.
It's all about finding a happy medium. I'll send an article to you I'm reading now for my Environmental Engineering class which talks about how population growth and carrying capacity needs to be dealt with on the social level, not the technological level. (So yay abstinance and sexual/reproductive responsibility!)
But I enjoy reading your blog! Keep it up :