Lesson video

Hello, learners and welcome to this lesson on contraception.

My name is Mr. Spence, and of course, it's my privilege to be able to take this lesson.

In this lesson, we look at different types of contraceptives and more importantly, we look at different religious and non-religious views on their use.

I promise this to be a really interesting lesson.

But of course, as we explore different views we may look at views that may be controversial.

So be mindful of that before you begin this lesson.

Nevertheless, as I said it's going to be a very exciting lesson.

So when you are ready, let's begin.

Okay, well, before we begin let's make sure you've got everything that you need for this lesson.

That includes a pen or pencil to write with.

You'll also want a different coloured pen for corrections.

You'll also want to paper or an exercise book to write in, a quiet space to work in as far as possible.

And of course, your curious brain to do some thinking and learning in this lesson.

Now, if you have a TV or music in the background playing, please turn that off so you can concentrate.

If you're using your mobile device disable all your notifications and your current discussions so you are able to concentrate and focus in this lesson without disruption.

If you're using a desktop for this lesson please close any of the application.

You may also still want to put your phone to one side and make sure that you've got it out of silent or you've turned it off.

Now in this lesson, we're going to be looking at contraception and it may be a sensitive topic for some of you.

In this lesson we may also refer to content from sex and relationships education.

And therefore it's really, really important that you check with a trusted adult before starting this lesson or doing this lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

Please speak with your parents or carers if anything we discuss in this lesson affects you.

And of course, you can also contact Young Minds for further support.

Good, I'm going to ask you to pause the video at this point, and please now at this point go and collect anything that you need so that you're ready for the lesson.

That includes equipment but of course, we're making sure that you are in a quiet space, a working space.

And please, please do speak with your parents before you begin with this lesson.

Speak with the parents or with trusted adults before you begin this lesson.

So pause now and when you're ready, we can continue.

Good, welcome back.

I trust now that you have prepared yourself.

You are in a quiet space, you've got all of the equipment and you've spoken with a trusted adult.

So let's now begin our lesson.

Like I said, today, we are going to be looking at contraception and we're going to start by looking at different types of contraception and then we're going to look at religious and non-religious views on their use, talking about Christianity and the Roman Catholic and other Christian views.

We'll look at Islam and of course, we look at secular view such as the humanist.

So we're going to be exploring lots of different reasons.

As I said earlier, some of these views may be controversial.

So be mindful of that as we go into the lesson.

So we start with a basic question, one of a definition, what is contraception? So at this point, I'm going to ask you just to think for five seconds, think about it.

What do you think contraception is? How would you define it? Brilliant, thank you for thinking about that.

Let's have a look at the definition of contraception.

Contraception refers to the methods used to prevent a pregnancy from taking place.

That's why it's called contraception because it's preventing conception.

And that's what we're going to be looking at today.

Different types of things that are used or methods that are used to prevent a pregnancy.

I want you to really know this definition.

So I'm going to ask you to pause the video at this point and then write it down the definition of contraception.

Good, welcome back.

I trust at this point now that you've created a mind map and you've listed some different types of contraceptives that you've heard of and perhaps these are some of the things that you listed, the condom, the pill, or even the morning after pill which is an emergency contraceptive.

These are some of the most popular contraceptives in contemporary British society.

I think today we're going to be looking at different types of contraceptives and there are two major categories or types of contraceptives.

.

There is the artificial contraceptive and we've also got the natural contraceptive.

Now, today we are not going to be looking at all of the artificial or natural contraceptives.

We are going to look at a select few which you can use as an example of contraceptives when you're discussing contraception.

So the first one we want to talk about is the pill.

Now the pill, it contains levels, varying levels of progesterone and oestrogen that's used to prevent pregnancy.

We also have the coil.

The coil is the flexible, transparent ring that is placed inside of the vagina.

Also preventing pregnancy for up to a month.

The condom is a thin sheet of latex that is worn over the male sexual organ and in the case of the female, condom is worn inside.

And we also have sterilisation which is a surgical procedure and it's a permanent type of contraception that it's used to prevent pregnancy or prevent reproduction.

Quick fire questions then.

Which of the following is a description of the coil? Good, if you said a soft, flexible, transparent ring you are correct.

That's a soft, flexible transparent ring that's worn inside of the vagina.

What contraceptive is made of a thin latex sheet? Good, you are correct, it's a condom.

Which of the following is a permanent contraceptive? Perfect, well done, that is sterilisation, which is a surgical procedure in order to prevent reproduction.

Good, let's talk about some different types of natural contraceptives.

Sort of, we've got two that we're going to look at today.

We're going to look at first abstinence and then the rhythm method.

Abstinence means not engaging with, in sexual intercourse with a partner.

You would have seen this word before in some of our previous lessons.

Now the rhythm method is a second natural type of contraceptives.

And that means having, only having sex with the partner when the woman is at her least fertile point.

So it's timing sex in order to make sure that you're not having sex when the woman is most fertile.

Good, I want you to pause at this point for me and to answer the following questions on natural contraceptives.

What is abstinence? And what is the rhythm method? So pause your video at this point and answer those two questions on your paper or in your exercise book.

Of course, you're going to resume once you're ready to continue.

Good, welcome back.

I trust at this point that you have told me the definition of abstinence and also the rhythm method.

Let's go through that one more time.

So abstinence is not engaging in sexual intercourse with a partner.

We also have the rhythm method, which is having sex only when the woman is known to be least fertile So two different natural forms of contraception.

Perfect, I trust now you've corrected your work and you've changed and edited your definitions if you didn't get it exactly right.

Perfect, let's continue with some quick fire questions.

Which of the following is a description of abstinence? Good if you said not engaging in sexual intercourse, then you are absolutely correct, well done.

What is it called when a couple time sex to coincide with a least fertile period? Good, if you said a rhythm method you are absolutely correct.

What is it called when someone does not engage in sex with a partner to avoid pregnancy? Again, that's the definition of abstinence.

Good, I'm glad now at this point that you know some different types of contraceptives, you know the artificial and the natural and you've got some examples of artificial and natural contraceptives.

Artificial examples being things like the pill, the coil, the condom and sterilisation.

And natural methods being abstinence and the rhythm method.

Six methods you've learned about at this point in the lesson.

Well, of course, today we want to look at Christian and Islamic and non-religious views on the use of contraception.

So we're going to start with Christianity and look at what different Christian branches or denominations think about the use of different types of contraceptives.

So let's start off with the Roman Catholic church.

The Roman, the Roman Catholic church believes that life is precious, it's sacred.

It's something that's given by God.

And therefore it should be treasured.

It should be looked after and people don't have the right to prevent life or to take life.

Children are also seen as a gift from God and therefore contraception, trying to prevent pregnancy would be trying to deny yourself of a gift that God is trying to give.

Of course, there are different views among different Christians but this is the way that the Catholic church interprets the Bible, that life is precious and it's not their right to take or prevent life.

Catholics try to work in coordination with natural law that is doing everything according to the way that nature works.

And because nature works naturally through sexual intercourse to produce children Catholics don't think is right to stop that.

And therefore they don't agree with artificial contraceptives.

They won't use things like condoms or the pill or surgical procedures in order to prevent pregnancy.

Rather they may use natural contraception such as abstinence, refraining from having sex or they may use a rhythm method, having sex when a woman is least fertile.

And this is the type of contraception that they will use to do family planning.

So I guess that artificial contraception is disapproved.

And of course, like I said, it's based on interpretation and the Catholics the instruction is given from God in Genesis is to have many children and therefore they don't agree with the practise of trying to prevent children from being born or being conceived.

So what do different other or other Christian branches or denominations think.

Well, we have to Methodist also in the UK and Anglican, again, two big branches of denominations in the United Kingdom.

The Methodist church agrees with the use of different types of contraceptives.

So they will agree with the use of artificial and natural contraceptives.

And they use these because it helps families, or perhaps couples with family planning.

It helps them to decide how many children they're going to have when they're going to have children.

And that helps gives them a lot more control over their family.

And it also allows them to have fulfilment in marriage because they're not losing control of when they have children and having children when they can't necessarily afford to look after them or they are not in the right space to look after them.

So I gives them that more control and that allows them to have more fulfilment in their marriage.

The Anglican church or the Anglican communion believe that again, artificial and natural contraceptives are both okay to use.

And again, with regards to family planning because it gives them the opportunity to control the amount of children they have and to regulate that process of having children.

But this is not something that the Anglican communion dictates or prescribes for their adherence.

They don't tell them to use artificial or natural contraceptives.

Rather they say it is up to the conscience of the parents to make that decision.

And parents, they believe are guided by God in order to make decisions as to when it's a right time to have children or not the right time to have children.

Of course, they will use contraceptives accordingly.

So as you can see, we've got different views among Christians whether it's the Roman Catholic, the Anglican communion or the Methodist church.

I want you to pause the video at this point and answer questions for me, these questions are Christian viewpoints.

So there are three questions on your screen.

I want you to answer them in full sentences.

So the first question, why don't Catholics allow the use of artificial contraceptives? The second, why don't Anglicans recommend a specific type of contraceptive and the third, what is the main reason for the Methodist position on the use of contraceptives? So you can see some sentence starters there for you, you can use these to start your sentences to start your answers to these questions.

So pause your video at this point and you're going to answer all three questions for me in, on your paper or in your exercise book.

Once you have finished spending a few minutes answering these questions, then you can press resume so that we can continue.

Good, welcome back.

I trust at this point that you have answered all of those three questions for me in your, on your paper or in your exercise book.

Let's continue then and look at some of the answers.

So the first question was, why don't Catholics allow the use of artificial contraceptives? And you would use the sentence started there, Catholics don't allow the use of artificial contraceptives because they believe in the sanctity of life and that children are a gift from God and so they do not want to prevent contraception using artificial methods.

Why don't Anglicans recommend a specific type of contraceptive? Anglicans don't recommend a specific type of contraceptive because they believe parents have a conscience and they should use those conscience to judge whether the right course of action when it comes to the use of contraceptives.

Third question, what is the main reason for the Methodist position on the use of contraceptives? Methodists propose that contraceptives be used for family planning.

This is because they want the married couple to have fulfilment in their marriage.

So those are some of the answers you could have given to these questions based on the key information that we've learned so far in this lesson.

I hope you've got a different coloured pen and you're going to do some corrections and make sure you've got all of the correct answers before we move forward.

Good, let's continue.

I, let's, I want to make sure you really, really understand the different positions of Christians on the use of contraceptives.

So I've got some different points on the screen for each Christian branch or denomination and I want you to spot the mistake for me, okay? So Roman Catholic say, it says they allow natural contraceptives.

The Anglican it says they recommend that all use the rhythm method.

And for Methodist it says contraceptives are to be used for family planning.

Where's the mistakes? Brilliant, if you said the Anglican one that's absolutely right.

Remember Anglicans don't recommend any particular type of method.

They said you can use both natural and artificial contraceptives.

Which of the following is incorrect? Perfect if you said Methodist, you are correct.

So they do allow both artificial and natural contraceptives.

Which of the following is incorrect? Good, if you said to Roman Catholic, you'd be correct.

Roman Catholics don't allow the use of a condom because a condom is an artificial contraceptives and they only implement the use of natural contraceptives.

Final one.

Good, if you said Anglican, you'd be correct.

Anglicans don't recommend any particular type of contraceptive.

They say that parents have the ability to make those decisions for themselves based on their conscience.

So again, really well done if you've got all of these correct and you were able to spot the mistakes.

So let's have a look at some Muslim views on the use of contraception.

So similar to Catholics, Muslims believe in the sanctity of life.

For Muslims, Allah is the creator and life is a gift that Allah gives in the same way children are a gift that Allah gives to human couples and therefore contraception is not favoured.

However, it is used.

One type of method that is used is the rhythm method which is a natural contraceptives.

And that is timing, if you remember, timing sexual intercourse so that coincides with a period of, that the woman is least fertile.

Artificial methods aren't necessarily favoured.

However, they are preferred over permanent methods because it's really, really important in Islam that families are able or couples are able to reproduce and therefore they don't sanction permanent contraceptives unless it's some form of medical emergency that requires it.

So that's not welcomed in Islam.

Surah 42 says, Allah is the one who is in control of giving children.

It says rather, he gives to whom he wills, female children, and he gives to whom he wills, male that's the male children.

And he renders whom you will barren.

And therefore Allah is in control when people, human couples conceive children.

And that is why Muslims don't agree with the use of contraception.

Primarily, they don't favour theo use of contraception because ultimately Allah is providence, he is in control of whether or not a man and a woman will be able to conceive and bear a child.

I want you to pause your video at this point and rank the following contraceptives in order of Muslim preference.

So Muslims preferred different types of contraceptives over another, even though all contraceptives are not necessarily favoured.

So pause your video at this point and rank these three types of contraceptives for me in order of the way that Muslims will prefer them, they should only take you a few seconds to a minute to complete.

So pause your video at this point, spend a minute and then rank quickly the different type of contraceptives according to Muslims. Perfect, welcome back.

I trust now that you have ranked these three types according to how Muslims would prefer them.

Let's have a look and see if you got them correct.

So the top preferred type of contraceptive for Muslims, many Muslims are natural contraceptives.

That's things like the rhythm method or abstinence.

Artificial contraceptives are next in line.

That is things like the condom and pill, sterilisation is the least preferred form because it's a permanent contraceptive.

Sorry, it's called natural, artificial and permanent in terms of Muslim or Islamic preference.

Good, let's make sure you learn that key scripture that we went through earlier in the lesson.

I would like you now at this point to pause your video and use the words in the white box to fill in the blanks in the words in the pink box for me.

So filling in the text and learning that text by using the words in the white box to fill in the blanks.

So pause your video at this point, complete copy of the text and then complete the following scripture references by using the words in the white box.

Pause your video now and then resume once you're ready to continue.

Perfect, welcome back.

I trust now that were able to fill in the blanks and you've completed that task.

Let's have a look and see if you got it correct.

So he, Allah, gives to whom he wills, female children and he that's again, Allah, gives to who he wills, males, again, referring to male children here.

And he, Allah, renders whom he wills barren.

So Allah is the one who is in control of whether or not a couple will be able to bear children or not bear children.

Now Muslims, like I said, don't favour contraceptives.

It's not something that is promoted in Islam.

However, there are times when Muslims will use contraceptives and there are some conditions around their use.

Now, Muslims had a conference on Islam and family planning.

And in that conference, they decided on some conditions or certain circumstances in which they would permit the use of contraceptives.

So I'm not going to go through now at that point some different circumstances or certain conditions that are necessary for the use of contraceptives.

So the first conditions that was identified at the Conference on Islam and Family Planning was that contraception is allowed when there's a threat to the mother's health.

That it's to say if conception will cause a woman's health to be at risk, at serious risk, then contraceptives should be used.

And of course there are some advantages and disadvantages to this position.

One benefit is that it prevents unnecessary illness or death, and of course Muslims value the sanctity of life.

But of course it's difficult.

One challenge of this is that it's difficult for couples to know if there is a risk.

So that prevents it, sometimes working as a condition.

The second condition is that the couple may already have a lot of children.

So if a couple already has many, many children then contraceptives may be the right thing to do.

So therefore they prevent use of contraceptives in this circumstance, why? Because allows family planning.

Muslims don't want families to have so many children that they can't manage those children.

But of course, it determines, it's up to Islam to determine what is a lots of children.

The third condition is that if there's a risk of mental or physical deformities for the child.

If a couple knows, for example, that their children are likely to have mental or physical deformities, they may use contraception.

So one of this, one of the benefits of this is that it prevents parents and child suffering.

But of course, it's a question about the sanctity of life there when we think about a challenge of this position, isn't all life precious, even those who have a mental or physical disability or deformity.

So it's important to note that there are some challenges even with this particular condition but it's something that's permitted again because of the need to prevent human suffering, unnecessary or undue human suffering.

The fourth position is that of financial limitation.

If a couple cannot afford to look after children then they should use contraception.

There is no point in having lots of children if you can't afford to care for them, because it's going to prevent, it's going to cause suffering for the child and for the parents also, therefore, one of the benefits for this is that it prevents suffering.

But of course, one of the challenges who determines whether our couple are able to support children or not.

So there are some benefits and challenges with all of these different conditions.

I hope you remember all of these conditions in order for Muslims to use contraceptives.

Let's see how well you remember them.

I want you now to identify for me what is missing.

So it may be the condition or the explanation.

Can you identify what is missing for me? So we've got there an explanation missing.

What's the risk of deformities? Great, if you said a child being at risk of mental or physical deformities, you're correct.

What's missing? Good, parents being unable to support or raise the child.

What's missing? Good, having many children.

Good, if the mother's health is at serious risk because of conception.

Good, physical and mental deformities.

Good, having many children.

Of course, threat to the mother.

So there are lots of reasons, right? Good, financial limitation.

That means a couple cannot afford to raise or to look after the children that they may have.

So you can see lots and lots of different conditions at which Muslims will allow or Islam will allow Muslims to use contraceptives or contraception.

So what does secular or non-religious people think about the use of contraceptives? Well, if you've got humanists in the UK but you can also take a think about this from a utilitarian point of view as well.

Now there is no ethical or moral objection from humanists, utilitarians or secular people in general for the use of contraceptives.

What's important for humanist is that children are wanted and that children are loved by their parents and therefore contraceptives may prevent couples or parents or people having children who don't want children, who don't love them.

It's also important for non-religious people that the woman's health is really, really protected and therefore contraception may help that.

So they agree with Muslims that actually healthy children and healthy moms or women are really, really important.

They're not persuaded by the arguments of natural law that is only using things that occur through nature allowing things to work as they will work naturally in nature.

They, they're not persuaded by these arguments.

Therefore, they allow contraception because you remember humanists, for example, don't believe in a God.

And therefore there is no divine plan with regards to couples having children.

And they believe this is a false premise that should not be used to dictate whether or not contraception is used and natural or not is it, of course, it's happening on motive.

And it's really, really important for non-religious people to think about the consequences that's what's more important.

Not so much some divine plan behind the use, the bearings of children.

What is important is the consequences for women, for the children, for the couple that's what determines whether or not contraceptives should be used.

However, it's really, really important to say that humanists, utilitarians, secular society will not say that contraceptives should be promoted or used in order for people to be promiscuous.

That's not the purpose of a contraceptive.

It's not in order to enable people to have lots of sexual partners.

That's not the purpose of it.

People, humanists think that people should take responsibility for their actions and their sexual behaviours.

Okay, now pause the video at this point because we've looked at the view of humanists, particularly the viewpoints of the British Humanist Association, which says if contraception results in every child being a wanted child and in better healthier lives for women, it must be a good thing.

But I want you now to read this quote for me and answer the following questions.

Why the humanists support the use of contraceptive? So pause the video and answer that question for me.

Good, welcome back.

I trust now you have answered that question.

Let's look at the answer.

Humanists support the use of contraceptives because it protects women and children.

So I hope you got to correct, if you didn't just correct your work for me there and make sure you've got the correct answer.

Good, well done.

We have now come to the end of our lesson.

You've been so fantastic.

We've looked at different types of contraceptives.

We looked at different Christian views, the Islamic view and we've looked at different non-religious views in the use of contraceptives as well.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

I most certainly enjoyed teaching you Remember at this point you need to complete your exit quiz to demonstrate a really, really great learning and remember to continue reviewing and going over your learning from this lesson so it moves from your short-term into your long-term memory.

In our next lesson, we'll look at some contemporary family issues and it promises to be a really interesting topic then also.

So until then, take care.