MORAL
27 APPLICATION TO BlRTH CONTROL
ldeally a treatment of birth control should occur within the context of a whole theology of marriage. Unfortunately, Jack of space makes this fuller treatment possible. Here we can only treat the act of intercourse itself. However, we can brief!y place the act of intercourse within the whole context of marriage by indicating that it is the supreme expression of the meaning of the ma!Tiage and as such epitomizes what the marriage stands for as a relationship of a man and a woman, as the womb from which olfspring derive, and as a basic unit of society having responsibilities of that society. Although there are further values to be expressed by the act of intercourse in a Christian marriage (e.g., the values of a rela.tionship to Christ and what I would cali the "transcendent value"), we shall have to be content with the treatment of the three indicated above. l ntercourse, th en, in the con crete expresses three values: the value of the relationship of husband and wife; the value of their creative movement toward olfspring; the value of their responsibility to their already existing chilclren and to society as a whole. Moreover, because each of these relationships represents an aspect of the supreme law enunciated in the first and second commanclments, each of these relationships is renderecl intelligible by an abstract, universal, ideal specifie la"·· Finally, since ali of these values and laws pertain to the same concrete act, we can speak of the co-presence of th1·ee laws which we shall denominate respectively as the law of integral persona! relationship, the law of integ1·al (whether procreative or not) intercourse, and the law of total responsibility. ln the ·remainder of this section we shall clarify the meaning of these three laws, their co-presence in concrete cases, anrl the solution of the conflicts engendered by their co-presence in certain instances. The act of intercourse falls under the law of integ1·al persona! relationship. This means that a married couple is called to g1·ow to be one f!esh and one spirit. FU!'ther, this oneness is to be expressed supremely in the act of intercourse in an integ1·al way. This means that intercourse is not to be simply a union of bodies but a total union of persons in which the bodies of the couples, their psychological attitudes, and their intellec-