THE RELEVANCE OF CHASTITY AND ABSTINENCE IN THE PREVENTION OF STIs AND HIV/AIDS


THE RELEVANCE OF CHASTITY AND ABSTINENCE IN THE PREVENTION OF STIs AND HIV/AIDS

Introduction
            One of the novel experiences in recent history, especially at the dawn of the 20th and 21st centuries is the freedom of “sexual expression” which has radically gained grounds in most part of the world. Of such trends in recent times, is the phenomenon called “sexual promiscuity.” Over past decades, the phenomenon of sexual promiscuity has attracted widespread interest. The horrendous consequences of this has given rise to a spiral of ugly trends such as the geometric spread of STI’s and HIV/AIDs, abortion, divorce, prostitution, destruction of the family system, desecration of the sexual act, just to mention but a few. Thus, STI’s and HIV/AIDs have become one of the most serious problems and tragedy in Africa and the world at large. In the same vein, we cannot be oblivious of the importance and awareness of chastity and abstinence and its role in creating continuous processes towards preventing this pandemic.
To this end, the main thrust of this write up will be to examine the relevance of chastity and abstinence in the prevention of STI’s and HIV/AIDs. Here we shall begin by clarifying some important terms that appeared in the topic. Then we shall examine the causes and at the same time the effects of STI’s and HIV/AIDs. Along with this we shall look at the importance of abstinence and chastity in the prevention of STI’s and HIV/AIDs. Consequently, an attempt will be made to consider the way forward (updates and future plans). Thus our conclusion shall follow from this.
Explication of Terms
            Before we proceed there has to be a clarification of the major terms evident in our topic.
Chastity: The word ‘chastity’ comes from the Latin adjective ‘castus, meaning “morally pure.” It is also derive from chastening or rebuking of concupiscence. By such chastening, chastising or curbing, passion is held in control, and is kept in alignment with right reasons.[1] Chastity, therefore, is a virtue in as much as it steadily tends to keep human conducts under the control or reason.[2] Chastity is a special virtue because it concerns a special aspect of good, that is, the controlling, and the keeping reasonable of the tendencies of sex. In other words, chastity is concerned with the control of sexual pleasure. Conversely, a person is unchaste if he indulges in unlawful coition and all that are associated with it.[3]
            Further on, chastity is simply seen as the moral virtue that enables us to live our sexuality in its fullness in keeping with our particular state in life.[4] Hence, it concerns the whole personality with its capacity for love and warmth and human relationships; it facilitates the fullest realization of oneself as male and female and fosters integration of one’s self with others in the human community.[5] According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, chastity is the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being (CCC 2337).   
More so, chastity is one of the evangelical counsels of our Lord Jesus Christ. This counsel is for all humans, not just to a particular group of people.[6] In other words, priests, sisters, married persons and single persons are all called by God to chastity, to use their sexuality according to God’s plan in their specific state in life. For instance, married persons live chastely using the gift of sexuality exclusively with one another and priest live chastely by not having sexual activity with anyone. Similarly, chastity as Austin Robert would put it, “is the correct attitude in respect to sexuality in general. It is that part of the virtue of temperance, which controls and orients everything concerned with the sexual instinct, such as thought, desires, actions and pleasures, both in married life and outside marital relationship. Chastity is ordered like sexuality itself to either marriage or virginity.”[7] At this point, however, it is pertinent to state that chastity is not the denial, repression, or submersion of our sexuality outside of marriage.
Abstinence: The word abstinence comes from the Latin word ‘abstinentia meaning, refraining from or indulging from a desire or appetite. It is a self-enforced restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. It is also concerned with the control of the pleasure of the palate. It is a deliberate decision to avoid something. Sexual abstinence or sexual restraint is the practice of refraining from some or all aspects of sexual activity for example, People choose to abstain for a variety of grounds including personal religious beliefs, commitment to a cause or person, fear (of punishment, of negative consequences), risk of pregnancy, risk of STDs, and many others.
STI’s: The word STI stands for sexually transmitted infections. Traditionally they are referred to as venereal diseases.[8] This type contagious disease has its main mode of transmission through sexual intercourse. They can be classified as aetiological and clinical classifications. STI’s commonly affects both sexes’ genital organs. Common diseases include Gonorrhea, bacteria vaginosis, Syphilis etc. with sign and symptoms relating to urethral discharge, difficulty in passing urine etc. prevention and control involves abstinence from pre-marital sex, monogamous sexual relationship, just to mention a few.[9]
HIV/ AIDS
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV is a virus that kills the body’s "CD4 cells." CD4 cells (also called T-helper cells) help your body fight off infection and disease.[10] HIV can be passed from person to person if someone with HIV infection has sex with or shares drug injection needles with another person. It also can be passed from a mother to her baby when she is pregnant, when she delivers the baby, or if she breast-feeds her baby. The two types include HIV-1 and HIV-2, both are transmitted through the same mode and can cause AID’s.[11]
 Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) AIDS is a disease that affects the body when HIV destroys its immune system.[12] Normally, the immune system helps us to fight off illness. When the immune system fails the body can become very sick. It is not hereditary but develops after birth from contact with a disease causing agent.
Effects of STIs and HIV/AIDs
Most situations of STIs and HIV/AIDs often come with one complication or the other. An infected individual necessarily needs some sorts of follow up by a doctor, psychologist, or any other person who can assist in patient psychologically. This explains why a new case of HIV/AIDs infection is not communicated to the individual as liberally as other ailments are communicated to patients in a hospital. Rather, there is usually a psychologist who would take time and care to explain to the new patient that the syndrome is not as deadly as usually conceived by most individuals. The major precaution ought not to be disregarded by the patient is the frequent taking of the prescribed drugs and medications. Nevertheless, we shall outline some likely effects of STIs and HIV/AIDs in the life of an individual. We shall proceed in terms of their physical, social psychological/emotional and economic consequences/effects.
Social Effects
On a social perspective, we can say that, the phobia for STIs and HIV/AIDs is very intense, though, depending on the individual concerned. There is that tendency of separation by family members and friends from those who have been diagnosed of the syndrome. Even those of us who have come to understand that this infection cannot be transferred through bodily contact like handshake or hugging, would find it difficult to relate freely with someone we know is infected. Also, in terms of employment, most employers would find it difficult to employ an HIV patient. Others would even dismiss any Staff who has been found to be positive due to fear that the infection may spread to other workers. The fact is that, infecting others may not always be possible except through sexual intercourse. All the same, people are advised not to discriminate against those who have been tested positive to HIV/AIDs since they are capable of going about their normal activities as long as they take their medications.
Physical Effects
On a general note, if an infected individual fails to take the recommended drugs, there is every tendency that the effects of the infection may play out physiologically. As such, the individual may loose a great deal of weight. In order to forestall this, proper dieting is encouraged, as well as strict adherence to the instructions and recommendations of the doctor.
Psychological and Emotional Effects
There is no doubt that fears and anxiety are capable of hikining a mild case to a greater degree. An individual who is highly perturbed as a result of his/her predicament (of being infected) is more likely to die earlier than others who are well informed that the infection is merely a syndrome and can have little or no effect on one’s life if the necessary precautions are adhered to. Worry in not a solution to any situation of life, instead, it intensifies it. It may bring about high blood pressure of which, on its own could lead to death. STIs and HIV/AIDs patients are therefore in need of psychological assistance in order to be able to cope with their condition.
Economic Effects
Thanks to the government of Nigeria, that has made the retroviral drugs free for all infected individuals. As such HIV/AIDs patients do not necessarily need to pay any amount of money in other to obtain these drugs. But as for other STIs, there is usually a need to spend some moneys in order to obtain their respective drugs.
The Importance of Abstinence and Chastity in Prevention of STI and HIV/AIDs
According to Bukola Adesina and Kehinde, A., STI and HIV/AIDS are public health problem. The spread of STI and HIV/AIDS involves the study of sexual behaviour. STI and HIV/AIDS affect mostly sexually active reproductive age groups in communities. They can affect anybody and any age but are commonly found among people of low socioeconomic class. Youths or adolescents are more prone to STI and HIV/AIDS because of the influence of peer pressure and urge to experiment sexual activity. Again, people of poor socioeconomic class are prone to STI and HIV/AIDS because of their poverty level and the need to use sexual activity as means of livelihood.[13] For example; Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) and also married women in polygamous settings who seek financial assistance outside their marriage. People in the high socioeconomic class may also be infected with STI and HIV/AIDS through extra marital activities as ways of showing their affluence. The female gender is more likely to contract STI and HIV/AIDS than their male counterparts because of the tendency to have their first sexual experience at a younger age. Some occupations such as members of the armed forces, long truck distant drivers and salesmen are at risk of contracting STI and HIV/AIDS because of their high mobility.[14] Stable marital status where the couple is staying together is a protection against acquisition of STI and HIV/AIDS. Husbands who are living away from their spouses are prone to acquire STI and HIV/AIDS.[15] According to the 2008 HIV/Syphilis sentinel survey in Nigeria, 3.3% of young people aged 15-19 years are infected. At this point, it is important we ask; how can we prevent STI and HIV/AIDS or what is the way forward?
            It is no longer news that at the moment there exist no vaccine(s) for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. Hence, prevention of HIV infection is the most effective way to combat this multi-organ and mostly sexually transmitted infection today. Although Scientists are making some progress in the area of developing effective tool against HIV, a vaccine against this infection is yet to be invented. It is plausible therefore to say that, prevention of STI and HIV/AIDS is a reliable and secure way of protecting once self against this infection and this depends greatly on the behaviour of each individual.[16] Sexual abstinence and Chastity are important pillars in the prevention of STI and HIV/AIDS especially amongst adolescents. Primary prevention especially abstinence and chastity remain part of the most realistic interventions for reducing further spread of the virus. However, the adoption of sexual abstinence as a prevention strategy among adolescents remains low and factors influencing its practice among urban young people in Nigeria are relatively unknown.
ABSTINENCE
            The AIDS pandemic has resulted hugely from sexual spread of HIV. Sexual transmission of HIV accounts for about 80% if not more of transmission of HIV in our environment. The difficulty in discussing sex openly due to complex social and religious factors makes this mode of transmission difficult to control. However, prevention of STI and HIV/AIDS depends greatly on education aimed at changing high risk behaviours that will lead to reduction in the risk of exposure. Indeed, the most effective way to avoid acquiring HIV infection through sex is by abstaining from sexual intercourse. This approach encourages young adults to abstain from sex until marriage. There are programmes and ways to develop skills for practicing abstinence and which encourage participants to adopt social norms that support abstinence. Between hormones and peer pressure, saying no to sex can be difficult for young people. According to Bukola Adesina and Kehinde, A., for those wanting to say ‘no’ to sex but are having problems doing so, here are some ways you can say ‘no’ to sex; Say no and keep saying no as many times as it takes to get the point across. Before the occasion arises, practise what you would say if someone pressured you to have sex. Avoid troublesome situations and places. Use body language that helps makes your point. Stand tall, speak clearly and confidently; and look the person straight in the eye when saying no. Beware of ‘pressure lines’ and respond accordingly. For example, if someone says ‘Everyone is doing it.’ Our response could be something to this effect; ‘I am not everyone, I don’t have to do it because anyone else is.’[17] 
CHASTITY
            According to Karol Wojtyla in his Love and Responsibility, the virtue of chastity cannot be fully comprehended without understanding love as the function of relating one person to another, the function disposed toward the union of persons. There is no way to comprehend chastity without the virtue of love. The virtue of chastity, whose task is to liberate love from the attitude to use, must grasp not only sensuality and the concupiscence of the flesh themselves, but, in a sense even more so, those interior centers in man from which the attitude to use emerges and spreads.[18] To be chaste means to have a transparent relation to the person of the other sex. The essence of chastity lies precisely in keeping up with the value of the person in every situation and in pulling up to this value every reaction to the value of the body and sex. According to Karol Wojtyla in his Love and Responsibility, the condition of acknowledging and experiencing the full value of the human body and sex is precisely the appreciation; elevating it to the value of the person, which is symptomatic of and essential precisely to chastity. Hence, only a chase woman and a chaste man are capable of true love. It is plausible therefore to say that, Chastity does not lead to contempt of the body, but contains in itself certain humility of the body.[19]  No doubt, Abstinence and Chastity are very essential in the prevention of STI and HIV/AIDS. They are difficult to practice but that does not mean that they cannot be practiced. 
Exploration of Abstinence and Chastity
The question about abstinence and chastity as giving up sex for some period or for the rest of one’s life is not an easy one to deal with especially when we consider our variable horizons concerning sex. Dr Stacy Tessler Lindau an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago maintains that sex for some people is not just like icing on the cake, most people wouldn’t willingly give up sex. Sex we can say makes life better, more enjoyable and healthier for lost of familiar reasons. However for whatever reason, does not having sex necessarily unhealthy? Not really, Dr Lindau presents what the experts say, at least not physiologically. The clear point is that one cannot die from abstinence. Dr Lindau also maintains that abstinence does not lead directly to conditions such as cancer and heart disease. Dr Lindau expresses the view of the experts further by maintaining that abstinence, unlike not eating, doesn’t physically damage anybody, at least not directly.[20] “It’s not a health crisis if you don’t,” Debra Herbenick, a research scientist and professor at Indiana University Bloomington School of Public Health, says. “No one is going to say that abstinence for six months is going to hurt you.”[21]
Approximately 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. The exceptional 0.1% reproduces via asexual or clonal means, which vary wildly and are fascinating in their own right. In his book, John C. Avise describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of the world’s approximately 100 species of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction. By considering the many facets of sexual abstinence and clonal reproduction in vertebrate animals, Avise sheds new light on the biological meaning and ramifications of standard sexuality in his book Clonality: The Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution of Sexual Abstinence in Vertebrate Animals.[22]
An experimental abstinence and chastity program without a moralistic tone can delay young teenagers from having sex, a U.S. study has found.[23] The study differed from traditional programs that have lost US federal and state support in recent years in not preaching saving sex until marriage or disparaging condom use. Instead, research involved assignments to help children around the age of 12 see the drawbacks to sexual activity at their age. It included having them list the pros and cons themselves, and it found their cons far outnumbered the pros.[24]
The study appears in the February edition of Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.[25] It was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and involved 662 black children in Philadelphia. The students were assigned to one of four options: eight hour-long abstinence-only classes; safe-sex classes; classes incorporating both approaches; and classes in general healthy behavior. Results for the first three classes were compared with the control group that had only the general health classes.
Two years later, about one-third of abstinence-only students said they had had sex since the classes ended, compared with about 49% of the control group. Sexual activity rates in the other two groups did not differ from the control group. Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Program, said she hoped the study would revive government interest in abstinence-only sex education. The research was led by psychologist John Jemmott III, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who has long studied ways to reduce risky behavior among inner-city youngsters. Monica Rodriguez, of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, said the programme studied probably would be less successful with older, more sexually experienced teens. Almost a quarter of the teenagers studied said they had already had sex at least once, similar to other studies of urban, mostly black children of middle-school age, around 11 to 13.
Abstinence as a New Sexual Revolution[26]
            Abstinence is the choice of young people nowadays. Abstinence is not considered as such as an old-fashioned concept. Many young people choose sexual abstinence because they fear pregnancy; sexual transmitted diseases (STDs), getting caught, religious reasons and disapproval of their parents. However, many believe that abstinence-only programs do not give young people information that they need to make responsible choices about their sexual activity. Almost all young persons are aware that they are the first generation to grow up in a world that includes HIV/AIDS, but most think it will not happen to them. They can be sure it won’t only if they refrain from all sex, including oral and anal.
            Everyone agrees that not having sex until marriage is abstinence, but not everyone agrees about the definition of sex, so the definition of abstinence varies. While everyone is a sexual human being from birth to old age, the expression of sex varies widely. Some prefer having sex with other girls, and some boys prefer boys. Whether or not oral sex can be counted as abstinence depends on your definition. No matter what the definition, oral and anal sex can expose people to sexually transmitted diseases.
            Controversy about abstinence-only programs in schools is widespread. According to those who favor abstinence-only programs, young people who are strong pledgers postpone sexual activity and are less likely to become pregnant and contact STDs. Some critics of the abstinence programs say otherwise, claiming no credible scientific research has found abstinence-only programs effective in delaying the onset of sexual intercourse, or reducing its frequency. However, some research reported in the August 2004 journal of Adolescent Health credits abstinence-only programs with helping to reduce the pregnancy rate for fifteen to seventeen-year-olds by as much as 53 percent.[27] In December 2004, U.S. representative Henry Waxman published a report titled, Abstinence-Only Curricula Contain False Information. According to this report, “Over 80 percent of the abstinence-only curricula…contain false, misleading or distorted information about reproductive health.”[28] The report points to studies that prove abstinence-only programs increase the likelihood that participant will engage in risky behaviors by providing false information, such as suggestions that condom use does not prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDs. The Abstinence-Only Clearinghouse claimed otherwise. In June 2005, false or misleading information was still reported in some programs.[29]
            Everyone agrees that teaching abstinence is a good thing, but many experts say that it’s not wise to make this the only message. Both teens and adults, including medical experts and public–health officials, overwhelmingly believe that young people should be given a strong abstinence message and straightforward, detailed information about contraception. Critics also claim abstinence only programs can teach fear of sex, and that they perpetuate the ignorance, secrecy, and implicit shame of human sexuality. Experts believe that scaring kids away from sexually transmitted diseases and making sex shameful is a bad introduction to healthy sex. Similarly, critics also maintain that abstinence-only programs do not prepare students for safe sex. Supporters of the programs say: if you are going to be abstinent, why learn about contraception? But sometimes sex happens without planning. And it may happen without contraception. Thus many of these critics propose safe sex education rather than abstinence-only programs.
Conclusion-Mindful of Chastity and Abstinence
            From the foregoing, we have defined the terms the abstinence, chastity, STDs and HIV/AIDS and we related the relevance of abstinence and chastity to prevention of STDs and HIV/AIDS. The negative effects of STIs and HIV/AIDS beckon on the more need to make the bold steps to embrace healthy abstinent and chaste life. We did not ignore the challenges abstinence and chastity may pose to our contemporary age. Thus being mindful of these challenges we hereby elaborate more on abstinence and chastity.
The word chaste (clean) implies liberation from everything that makes dirty. Love must be so to speak pellucid that is through all the sensations, all the actions which originate in it we always be able to discern an attitude to a person of the opposite sex which derives from sincere affirmation of the worth of the person. Since sensation and actions springing from sexual reactions and the emotions connected with them tend to deprive love of its crystal clarity- a special virtue is necessary to protect its true character and objective profile. This virtue is chastity.[30] This is a way of reviving the benevolent name of chastity (which involves abstinence) which many people have misunderstood. The fact is that it is difficult to attain higher value because it demands extra effort majorly because of original sin. We often fall in to minimizing the significance of chastity and denying its value that we may even attribute evil to that which is good. John Paul II calls it resentment. Resentment possess as you see the distinctive characteristics of the cardinal sin called sloth.[31] Thomas Aquinas defines sloth (acedia) as a sadness arising from the basis that the good is difficult. This sadness indirectly helps to keep respect for good alive in the soul.[32]
            Fundamentally, Chastity and abstinence are remedies for concupiscence and a positive factor in human life and culture. Love as a virtue can truly satisfy the demands of love. Chastity therefore is efficiency in controlling the concupiscible appetite. Chastity consists in quickness to affirm the value of the person in every situation, and in raising to the personal levels all reactions to the value of the body and sex. True chastity does not lead to abandonment of body, marriage and sexual life. Also chastity is not repressing of sexual feelings and impulses such that values of the body and of sex are forced into the subconscious till when it back fires.
            For the married ones, chastity helps them to build on sexual urge to form long lasting marital relations which exhibits their reciprocal love for each other as they progress in their relationship from love as attraction to desire and to goodwill. For those who are single or have chosen celibate life, chastity reminds them that sexual urge is part of their humanness, where each sex male or female acknowledges their limitations and accepts with open hand the complementarities that comes from the other sex.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fagothey Austin, Right and Reason: Ethics in Theory and Practice (USA: The C.V. Mosby Company, 1959).

 

Fields Jessica, Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality, (New York, 2008).


Hyde Margaret O and Forsyth Elizabeth H., Safe Sex 101: An Overview for Teens, (USA, Twenty-First Century Books, 2006).


Kehinde A.O. and Adesina Bukola, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, (Ibadan: University press, 2012).

 

Lindau, Stacy Tessler MD, et al, What Schools Teach Our Patients About Sex: Content, Quality, and Influences on Sex Education, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 3, No. 2 (February 2008).


Obiadika Charles, Chastity: The Path to Holiness (Ibadan: Afrika-Link Books, 2014).

Odaibo Georgina and Olaleye D.O, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, , (Ibadan: University press, 2012).

Robert Austin, Centered on Christ (Still River: St. Bede’s Publications, 2005).

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II.II, q.35. a.1.

Wojtyla Karol, Love and Responsibility (Boston: Pauline Book and Media, 2013).



[1] Cf. Charles Obiadika, Chastity: The Path to Holiness (Ibadan: Afrika-Link Books, 2014), p. 19.
[2] Cf. Charles Obiadika, Chastity: The Path to Holiness, p. 19.
[3] Cf. Charles Obiadika, Chastity: The Path to Holiness, p. 20.
[4] Cf. Charles Obiadika, Chastity: The Path to Holiness, p. 20.
[5] Cf. Austin Fagothey, Right and Reason: Ethics in Theory and Practice (USA: The C.V. Mosby Company, 1959), p. 88.
[6] Cf. Charles Obiadika, Chastity: The Path to Holiness, p. 20.
[7] Austin Robert, Centered on Christ (Still River: St. Bede’s Publications, 2005), p. 22.
[8] Cf. Kehinde A.O. and Bukola Adesina, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, (Ibadan: University press, 2012), p 73 
[9] Cf. Kehinde A.O. and Bukola Adesina, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, (Ibadan: University press, 2012), p 77
[10] Cf. Georgina Odaibo and Olaleye D.O, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, , (Ibadan: University press, 2012), p 79
[11] Cf. Georgina Odaibo and Olaleye D.O, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, , (Ibadan: University press, 2012), p 81
[12] Cf. Georgina Odaibo and Olaleye D.O, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, The general Studies programme Unit, , (Ibadan: University press, 2012), p 79.
[13] Cf. A. O. Kehinde and Bukola Adesina, ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ in Reproductive Health, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Ibadan: The General Studies Programme Unit, 2012), p. 75.
[14] Cf. A. O. Kehinde and Bukola Adesina, ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ in Reproductive Health, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Ibadan: The General Studies Programme Unit, 2012), p. 75.
[15] Cf. A. O. Kehinde and Bukola Adesina, ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ in Reproductive Health, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Ibadan: The General Studies Programme Unit, 2012), p. 75.
[16] Cf. A. O. Kehinde and Bukola Adesina, ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ in Reproductive Health, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Ibadan: The General Studies Programme Unit, 2012), p. 100.
[17] Cf. A. O. Kehinde and Bukola Adesina, ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ in Reproductive Health, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Ibadan: The General Studies Programme Unit, 2012), p. 103.
[18] Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility (Boston: Pauline Book and Media, 2013), p. 154.
[19] Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility (Boston: Pauline Book and Media, 2013), p. 156.

[20] Lindau, Stacy Tessler MD, et al, What Schools Teach Our Patients About Sex: Content, Quality, and Influences on Sex Education, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 3, No. 2 (February 2008), pp 256-266.

[22] John Avice, Clonality: The Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution of Sexual Abstinence in Vertebrate Animals, (New York,Oxford University press, 2008), pp.177-178.

[24] Jessica Fields, Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality, (New York, 2008).pp.1-50.

[26] Adapted from Margaret O Hyde and Elizabeth H. Forsyth, Safe Sex 101: An Overview for Teens, (USA, Twenty-First Century Books, 2006), p.22ff.
[27] Margaret O Hyde and Elizabeth H. Forsyth,  Safe Sex 101: An Overview for Teens,p.28
[28] Margaret O Hyde and Elizabeth H. Forsyth,  Safe Sex 101: An Overview for Teens,pp.28-29.
[29] Margaret O Hyde and Elizabeth H. Forsyth,  Safe Sex 101: An Overview for Teens,p.29
[30] Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibilty, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc, 1994), p.146.
[31] Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, p.146.
[32] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II.II, q.35. a.1.

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