No Susan, I certainly wouldn't say sex is always harmful to women, that is silly; having a baby is a natural event, after all, and one which should bring great joy. However, just going flat out through ignorance as they did in the old days, and some do now, producing masses of children, often unwanted and unloved, unable to be looked after properly, and endangering the health of the mother and the stability of the family - no, that isn't right. No, I am not a catholic, but at least where I live, most catholics are now pretty sensible about these matters. In this part of the world the lack of thought concerning procreation lies in areas quite unconnected with religion.
As to m1469's original question, I can't go past Aldous Huxley's dying statenent. "People should try to be kinder to one another." You have to have logic and reasoning too, of course, but unless it is directed toward kindness and the overall reduction of suffering, reason alone can be a very selfish thing.
The urgent nature of this problem of rules and logic, which include the rules of monetary systems, was brought home right here in Auckland a few weeks ago. In an incident which probably reached the newspapers of most people on this forum, an Auckland woman's house had its power disconnected because the family had not paid a bill of $168. She was dependent on an oxygen machine and she died in consequence. Moreover, the people who cut the power off, it seems, knew of her dependency. Until some degree of kindness is brought into these idiotically ruthless procedures of "user pays" we are going to see many more cases of this senseless cruelty.
Where my wife comes from, in the Philippines, if you cannot pay you die, simple as that, life is so abominably cheap. I used to be proud of the humanitarian and egalitarian nature of my country's government - not any more. If anything we seem to be going backwards into barbarism - a blind willingness to abandon kindness to follow monetary rules. It seems it is better to let people die than to turn a blind eye to the small percentage who might rip off the system.
Topic: What is the problem with the world ?