RFI: What to say about safer sex?
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I am presently in the last stages of editing "Primary Mother Care" in
which we deal with HIV, teenage pregnancy, the ethics of sex, etc. I
am much concerned about what to say about safer sex.
In a recent visit to Malawi I was much impressed by:
(1) A management consultant saying "We just don't know what to do
about AIDS".
(2) All the condoms supplied are said to be enough for 1% of sexual
encounters.
(3) A friend had trained four assistants and three of them have al-
ready died of AIDS.
(4) 27% of urban pregnant mothers are HIV positive.
Although "Primary Mother Care" does its best to promote abstinence,
and to extol the classic Christian ethic of sex, it seems to me that
-alas - there is going to be sex, and there aren't going to be con-
doms. So something has to be said about 'heavy petting', 'petting to
climax', or 'mutual masturbation' - all of which are to be condemned,
except that infection with HIV is worse. It seems to me that this has
explicitly to be part of sex education. In the US scene it would -
rightly or wrongly - seem to be so much part of the culture, as
hardly to deserve comment. As far as I am aware of (I could well be
wrong), it does not seem to be a part of sex education in Africa.
Much the same goes for oral sex, which I presume is much safer than
vaginal sex (and especially anal sex) in not transmitting HIV. Clin-
ton did not even seem to think of it as sex. It seems also that this
is the common opinion in the US in that the editor of JAMA is said to
have got fired for attempting to speed up the publication of a paper
supporting the notion that it is not considered sex, at a time when
it was a hot political topic.
Anyway, I shall be interested to know what AFRO-NETS's subscribers
think. I might add that my personal ethic is to be highly conserva-
tive in all this. I argue that the taboo on sex is necessary for the
preservation of the stability of the family. Since it has largely
gone, I would like to see it put back, but that is another issue.
The present challenge is to reduce the transmission of AIDS in a non-
abstaining and largely condom-less society, when there is nothing much
to do on a dark candle-less tropical night - except to make love.
Do advise me as to what you would like to see in 'Primary Mother
Care'.
Maurice King
1 bis Rue du Tir
Geneva 1204, Switzerland
Tel./Fax: 41-22-329-6770
mailto:mhking@iprolink.ch
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/demographic.disentrapment
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