from: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2013
Clare is a second year medical student from Kenya and she writes: “Beste tomorrow is World Aids Day and I just read a shocking report by World Health Organization (WHO) that more than 2 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years are living with HIV, and many do not receive the care and support that they need to stay in good health and prevent transmission.
In addition, millions more adolescents are at risk of infection. The failure to support effective and acceptable HIV services for adolescents has resulted in a 50 percent increase in reported AIDS-related deaths in this group compared with the 30 percent decline seen in the general population from 2005 to 2012.
Here in Kenya religious leaders have opposed a proposal by Family Health Options Kenya that primary school pupils be issued with contraceptives for protection against sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies. The group, which deals with reproductive health, wants contraceptives such as condoms to be introduced in schools to promote safe sex.
Because of its seriousness can religious leaders allow the popular saying in ethics that the end justifies the means to be applied to save the lives of our young generations from dying of Aids?”
No Clare, I don’t think so because the “ends justifying the means” usually involving doing something wrong to achieve a positive end and justifying the wrongdoing by pointing to a good outcome is not the end in itself.
Another might be justifying the abortion to save the student from being discontinued from school. Taking an innocent life is morally wrong even if that was done good intention to help the student pursue her career.
The national chairman of the Inter-Religious Peace Foundation of Kenya, Bishop Joseph Maisha, argued that the introduction of contraceptives to school-going children would fuel teenage sex in the country.
Bishop Maisha argues that the Ten Commandments make it clear that murder, adultery, stealing, lying and greed are unacceptable in God’s eyes and He makes no “escape clause” for motivation or rationalization.
In other words, Bishop Maisha is trying to pass a clear message that only those who do not know God may be forced to justify their means to an end, but those who claim to be children of God have no reason whatsoever to break one of God’s commandments.
This proposal by Family Health Options Kenya comes after the recent Government report which revealed that girls as early as eight years were engaging in active sex and they risk getting infected and becoming pregnant.
Those who lobby for this means to be applied argue that the use of condoms is justified in order to stem the spread of disease and save the lives of young generation.
According to the report, HIV rates in Kenya are much higher for women than for men. This gender differential is particularly pronounced for young women aged 15 to 24 years, who are four times more likely to contract HIV than young men in the same age group.
The HIV prevalence rate for adult women is almost double that for men. This represents a female-to-male ratio of 1.9 to 1.0, the highest in Africa.
Despite the significantly higher prevalence rate among women in Kenya, however, the data also show that more men are sexually active than women. This trend is particularly pronounced for 15 to 19 year girls, 37 percent of which have had sex and carry an HIV prevalence of 2.7 percent, compared with 44 percent of boys who have had sex with a rate of less than one percent.Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.comFacebook-omolo beste
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002