A wealthy Colombian movie producer pays peasants to be sterilized:
…he asked to be identified as William Tell after the Swiss patriot who was ordered to shoot a small apple off his young son’s head.
Explaining his choice of name, he said his parents were Swiss. While the historic Tell fought against the tyranny of the occupying Austrians, he said he does battle with the tyranny of fertility.
Isn’t this sad? Some faithless man gives away money and land, leading poor men to sin: a penny for your soul.
Worried sick but too late to call off the operation, Colombian peasant Marquelis had a panic attack and passed out at the clinic.
Fainting won him only a brief reprieve, and the father of three was soon under the knife. After a few delicate snips, Marquelis became the proud — if sterile — owner of acres of land under a private Colombian program that gives plots to men in two Caribbean coast towns who undergo vasectomy operations.
“When the moment of truth came, I almost called the whole thing off. But then I decided: I have to do it,” he said.
“I have to do it”? This mutilation is not even undertaken as a fully free choice at one’s own initiative, but is a matter of bribery and pressure. It expresses a profound disrespect for human dignity and for conscience. Just imagine what howls of outrage would be heard if the Church were doing something similar: say, offering people money and land for conversions.
I’m a third year med student doing my OB/Gyn rotation, and see this mentality every day. Before postpartum women are discharged, they are asked what kind of birth control they will be using, and if none, bullied to use something. Tubal ligation is the preferred method as the OB gets the fee for that procedure. I was overjoyed however last week when we had a woman give birth to her seventh child in 8 years. Hispanic surname. Obviiusly Catholic. When offered a tubal, she said she wasn’t done having children. She also said it really wasn’t that difficult taking care of that many children. The staff thought she must be crazy and made snide comments behind her back. I commented that I admire her dedication to motherhood. The sad thing is, these OBs see what they do as a vocation, but can’t see that parenthood is a vocation as well. Having that many children requires much sacrifice of sleep, time, and energy. So does being an OB. What’s so wrong with chosing one over the other?
I’d like to see some wealthy philanthropist fund free lobotomies for liberals.