Does sex education promote sex?

Giving condoms to youngsters to protect themselves if they are going to have sex, is tantamount to giving them permission to have sex, Fr Euteneuer believes.

Human Life International, the world's largest international pro-life, pro-family and pro-woman organisation, is against sex education that talks about free sex, homosexuality or contraceptives as something that protect people.

If you tell young people that something is safer, Fr Euteneuer says, you give them a false sense of security and they will be more prone to engaging in sexual activity.

His organisation, which has 90 satellite offices in 75 countries, aims to "fight the evils of abortion, contraception, sex education and family breakdown", as well as to "bring the good news of the Gospel of Life to the nations". Its seeks to train, organise and equip pro-life leaders around the world to "promote and defend the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the family".

Condoms, Fr Euteneuer told The Times, have been found in a big American study not to prevent pregnancy 15 per cent of the time.

He argued that youngsters are having sex "because they are being told that it is ok to do so". Sex educators, parents and "the hedonistic culture that goes along with the culture of death" is telling them it is permissible. "Children are not born to be promiscuous, they have to be cultured to become so. It is not their natural state. Children are naturally very modest," he said.

Fr Euteneuer - who was in Malta recently to meet the local pro-life group Gift of Life and also had meetings with Archbishop Joseph Mercieca and seminarians - said children do not feel they have the natural permission "to just go out and do it like an animal". However, they do feel they are being given permission to have sex when someone hands them a condom and tells them that since they cannot control themselves they had better protect themselves.

"Those are all the messages that come through sex education. This is really evil because it is transforming these children's whole value system quite drastically."

He said Maltese people seem to be imbued with strong family values and urged them not to change. "My country and Western Europe are exporting different values but you have a right to keep them out."

Referring to the local pro-life movement - which is still in "its embryonic stages" - Fr Euteneuer said Malta has the advantage of having such a movement while abortion is illegal. "I came here to support and encourage the movement and also offer it our resources."

He said the challenge to modern day society is to reaffirm basic values, not abandon them and accept something else.

An obligation to inform

Local educators disagree with Human Life International's views on sex education.

"We cannot say sex education is wrong. We believe in education in all aspects of life, let alone in something as sensitive as this," Marianne Massa, senior health promotion officer within the Health Promotion Department, said.

The department follows the World Health Organisation recommendations and promotes abstinence as a first choice.

"But we have to offer a service and education to those who do not want to abstain. We cannot forget about them."

Ms Massa says the department does it utmost to help people who are sexually active, but this does not mean that it promotes promiscuity. "It is our obligation to give information to everyone, not only the ones who decide to abstain. We are here to help everyone." The department stresses highly the importance of faithfulness for people who are sexually active. Schools also try their best to promote abstinence as the topmost priority.

"But I cannot tell them to abstain at all costs," Personal and Social Development (PSD) subject coordinator Marie Ann Ciantar said.

It is a known fact that young people are engaging in sexual intercourse. Ms Ciantar said her experience with 14 and 15-year-old girls gives her reason to believe that they are not prepared to protect themselves by using contraceptives.

"That is why we want to increase awareness. If sexual activity is there, this is important even as a means not to spread disease."

With regard to condom use, Ms Massa said the department does emphasise that condoms are not 100 per cent safe in preventing either pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. PSD teachers - with the help of Sexuality and Relationship Education teachers who visit schools - discuss the merits of different forms of contraceptive.

Asked whether sex education could trigger promiscuity, Ms Massa said studies show that this is not the case. "Usually we experiment with things we do not know about."

Ms Massa said sexual health education doesn't just deal with the facts - which could be easily procured elsewhere - but also teaches children to say "no". It stresses the importance of not giving in to pressure to engage in sexual activity.

Sex education aims to help youngsters make informed choices and some decide to wait after learning of the possible consequences.

All the options - abstinence, keeping one partner, using contraceptives - are presented to the youngsters and they are not judged on their choices.

PSD incorporates decision-making and values. "We empower them to take their own decisions to mature into healthy adults," she said.

The risk of infection

Philip Carabot, who runs the Genito-Urinary Clinic at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, feels that what is being done in terms of sex education in Malta is not enough. "We need more sex education, more campaigns, not less."

Medical science, he said, has proven that it is a fallacy that sex education encourages people to have sex.

"Far from it. In fact, all our research shows that teaching abstinence only is counterproductive, and people who receive that message only are more likely to engage in sexual activity at an earlier age and are less likely to take any precautions, and therefore more at risk of getting sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy," he said.

He emphasised that the aim of sexual education is to prepare youngsters for sexual life, and does not only revolve around sex and pregnancy but also deals with relationships.

"We know that many youngsters are going to start having sex and we prepare them both clinically and psychologically for it. By all means we should give abstinence as the first option, but not to the exclusion of everything else." If youngsters were going to opt to have sex they needed to be aware of the importance of using condoms, especially because of the risk of infection.

However, the clinic's annual reports of the past six years indicated that condom use has remained "abysmally low", with the vast majority of patients never using condoms. Of the nearly 50 per cent of patients who admit to casual sex, only 12 per cent claim consistent condom-use. Dr Carabot said he was regularly seeing patients with syphilis, and an increasing number of patients with gonorrhoea that was resistant to the commonly-used antibiotics.

"Only the other week we had to urgently get a particular antibiotic from a GU clinic in London."