More about condoms and STIs

I refer to letters sent by Ms Elaine Dutton, Dr Philip Carabot and Mr Arthur G. Clare (The Sunday Times, January 21). Allow me to make the following remarks:

1. Unfortunately the sex education that most young people receive is limited only to techniques aimed at helping them have the cake and eat it.

Little is said about the nobility of human sexuality and rarely is human sexuality presented as a gift to be treasured rather than a pleasure to be exploited. The specifically personal character of human sexuality is hardly ever emphasised.

I am sure that, if our young people were consistently given this positive view of sexuality, they would more easily - or, at least, with less difficulty - understand the long-term value and reward of abstinence and fidelity, and be more strongly motivated to strive to observe them.

2. In counselling young people, I find great similarity between warning them against drug abuse and warning them against premarital and casual sex. As for drugs, I make it clear to them that the only healthy option is to stay away from them but I warn them to make it a point of at least using new syringes, if they foolishly choose otherwise.

A similar piece of advice relates to premarital and casual sex: I explain to them that the only wise and truly healthy option is to abstain before marriage and to remain faithful afterwards. But in case they imprudently decide to do otherwise, I insist that at least they should take as many precautions as possible. Among such precautions they should include condoms.

3. With due respect to Dr Carabot, I would prefer to describe the use of condoms as "less dangerous" rather than "safer" sex, given the serious risks involved. I assure him that my insistence on the need of a holistic approach to condoms is based not only on moral grounds, but principally on health grounds.

4. Both Ms Dutton and Dr Carabot insist that the efficacy of condoms depends on their correct use. But correct use demands strong and conscious self-control. Hence, one may wonder: how conscious and effective will such self-control be when one is under the influence of alcohol and often drugs, too, as often happens in discos and casual sex?

5. What worries me most about condoms is the false sense of security they quite often produce in young people. They usually refer to them as "safe sex". That's their common impression. In Great Britain since the free distribution of condoms in schools, teenage pregnancies, abortions and STIs have increased alarmingly.

6. Ms Dutton agrees with the "college level teachers" I quoted in my letter of January 14, when she notes: "The male condom is also not a pair of cycling pants. It will not cover those areas outside the penis. STIs such as genital warts may still be transmitted if present outside the protected area." So also, I am informed, can be the case with human papillomavirus, herpes and syphilis.