Reply to Galen: Condoms

[tegan at swbell.net]

Mjccmc01 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Siobhan again.
> 
> Okay.  For those of you who enjoy hypothetical moral dilemmas, try this:
> 
> You are a warranted chiurgeon who has chosen to carry condoms.  As part of
> your training for your office, you have been made aware that you may not
> treat a minor without parental consent.  In fact, you are not even to offer
> them an aspirin.  One starlit spring evening, two young (and I mean young)
> lovers approach you requesting a condom.  You know they are 15 and 16 years
> old, and they make it fairly clear that they are going to have sex, with or
> without protection. 
The trouble with this question is that a women who had an unwanted
pregnancy at 15 and still remembers how unmoved she was by the pleas of
adults to be cautious and the father of a fifteen year old daughter
who comes unglued at the thought of her ever having sex could come to
totaly different answers and yet be deathly sure they are right.
Just because, no matter what you qualify it with, the answer will
ultimatly be either yes or no does not make this a black or white
issue.It will be take on every color in the spectrum depending on the
life experiences of the viewer.
The two above mentioned people may come to the exact same decision for
religious reasons.
When I have to make important decisions I try to reach back in my own
life experience for guidence: what have I seen versus what they tell me.
I've seen aids ,close up,it stinks. I've seen fifteen year old girls 
drag their babies into the church school where I work looking worn out 
and used up. I wish I could say they made good mothers ,rarely.
In my ideal world children would not have sex , children would not have
children , and they would never ever die of aids.
Like everyone else I would like the SCA to be that ideal world, it
isn't.

 Do you violate policy and give them a condom? 
I would try to talk them out of it but ultimatly if I was the only road
block between making the act safe or unsafe , I would give them a
condom.
Then I would go back to my tent and have a good long cry.
 Is there
> an answer to this question that is both legally and morally correct?
> Will my action or lack of action cause harm to others, when in doubt I use this moral barometer my father gave me as a child. While it doesn't cover every circumstance it has  saved me from making mistakes many many times.

Tegan Rhos
"Let it go"