Article I: On the Liceity of Conjugal Copula

S. Th., Suppl., q. 49, a. 4-6.

938. Principle I. That copula is licit for spouses which of itself is apt for generation; for this three things are required: penetration of the vagina, effusion of seed within the vagina, retention of the seed by the woman, namely, so that it can be drawn into the uterus. Therefore he sins gravely who knowingly and willingly does not observe one of these three, or who voluntarily exposes himself to the proximate danger of this.

Conjugal copula which of itself is apt for generation is that by which, from the very mode in which the act is exercised, the conception and generation of offspring can be had per se and from the nature of the thing, even if from elsewhere or per accidens there is an impediment, as from sterility, old age, pregnancy, and other causes. For this threefold condition is required:

1° that the husband penetrate the woman's vagina with the virile member;

2° that he pour forth seed in the vagina and deposit it there;

3° that the woman receive the virile seed in the vagina.

Hence: a) Although conception can occur absolutely without penetration, by pouring forth seed at the opening of the vagina, because it is not impossible for the sperm to enter by its own vital motion and by the attraction of the uterus, nevertheless, because this is altogether rare and per accidens, it does not suffice for copula such as nature instituted it, nor is it an honorable mode of completing copula, even if it is done for a good end, for example to avoid the contagion of disease, but it is gravely illicit; for then in reality there is no copula, but only two simultaneous pollutions.

b) Nevertheless to penetrate the vagina a little suffices, although one acting thus can sin in affection, at least venially, if he acts thus without a proportionate cause. Certainly the mere fear of procreating offspring is not such a cause, as if someone wished thus to avoid conception or render it notably more difficult, and wished to avoid the mode more apt for generation; mortally, if he thinks and intends that thus generation is totally impeded.

A proportionate cause, for example, is if a woman, recently after childbirth or infirm in the genital parts, cannot endure perfect intercourse.

c) Nevertheless it would not suffice to penetrate the vulva a little and deposit the seed between the lips, because thus it would be deposited only at the opening, not at all in the vagina itself; and thus there would be no copula.

d) A fortiori, artificial insemination properly so called does not suffice for copula, by which seed, emitted outside the natural act of copula, is introduced by a certain art into the vagina or uterus; this is always gravely illicit.

1° Thus artificial insemination outside matrimony, by which a woman is fecundated with the seed of any man whatsoever, obtained and introduced by art. For by natural and divine law offspring can have origin only from matrimonial conjunction.

1. This is the question of copula, as they say, "dimidiate," which by several confessors was considered as a fitting remedy to be proposed to onanists. Now the bishops of the Netherlands condemned that practice of confessors who were advising or permitting inveterate onanists to use dimidiate copula lest they sin gravely any more; which, moreover, was gravely scandalous, and rather was by nature suited to prepare the way to onanism. The bishops asked the approbation of the Holy Office, which, Nov. 23-Dec. 1, 1922, gave the following response:

1° it cannot be tolerated that confessors of their own accord teach the practice of dimidiate copula and advise it indiscriminately to all penitents who fear lest more numerous offspring be born;

2° the confessor is to be reproved who, after all remedies have been tried in vain for turning away from this evil a penitent abusing matrimony, teaches him to exercise dimidiate copula for preventing mortal sins;

3° likewise the confessor is to be reproved who, in the said circumstances, advises dimidiate copula to a penitent to whom it is otherwise known, or, when the penitent asks whether this mode is licit, answers simply that it is licit without any restriction or explanation.

Concerning these things Fr. Damen observes, Th. M., II, n. 896, "the reason for the first response is that it is licit for no one, and much less for a confessor, to advise sin, whether mortal or even venial. The reason for the second response is that such a mode of acting involves scandal, since dimidiate copula easily paves the way to worse things, and thus in fact, as to the diminution of offspring, produces the same effect as neo-Malthusianism, and therefore cannot be advised as a lesser evil. The reason for the third response is that the advice is scandalous and the response of the confessor would be false, since it would declare licit that which is illicit."

But copula is not dimidiate if seed is deposited at the orifice or between the lips, because thus there is no copula, not even dimidiate; but if, at the entrance of the vagina and penetrating it, even a little, seed is poured forth.

2° Thus also insemination by which seed would be taken from any man whatsoever for fecundating the wife of another (hetero-insemination), for the same reason.

3° Thus finally artificial insemination in matrimony, by which the wife is fecundated with the seed of her own husband, yet not through an act of coitus of itself apt for generation. This has place if, by an artificial process, seed is transmitted to the internal organs of the woman, seed which is had from voluntary or involuntary pollution, or which is deposited at the mouth of the vagina, or which is extracted from the organs of the man, or which is collected from interrupted copula or from condomated copula. In all these cases the natural mode of procuring generation through copula is lacking, nor is there an action of itself tending to generation.

Indeed, in the case there is not one but in reality a twofold action of man: the first by which the seed is expelled or extracted, which of itself in no way tends to generation, but on the contrary is an impediment of generation, inasmuch as it pours forth seed outside copula and for this reason is gravely evil; the other, artificial, by which the seed afterward is introduced into the vagina or uterus of the woman. And although thus seed is now employed for fecundating the wife, nevertheless the action by which it is expelled or extracted from the testicles, as far as it is of itself, from its nature and from the mode in which it is done, emits seed in such a way that generation naturally is impeded, even if per accidens, from another consequent action, this defect is met so that the seed may contribute to generation in an artificial mode. Nevertheless this is insufficient for restoring rectitude in the prior action.

e) Since penetration of the vagina is an essential condition altogether required, therefore he who certainly cannot penetrate and complete the act in the due mode is in reality impotent. But if the impotence is doubtful, a married person could thus attempt copula as long as there is some hope of penetrating and arriving at perfect copula; otherwise, if there is no hope, because the mere possibility of generation does not suffice, but the probable possibility of copula is required.

1. From artificial insemination properly so called, which is always illicit, there differs artificial insemination improperly so called, by which, namely, after copula has been duly performed and the seed deposited in the vagina or at the entrance of the vagina, the seed is gathered again and transferred more deeply toward the uterus in an artificial mode. But if for this it is necessary to take up the seed in a syringe and also to draw the syringe out of the vagina by reason, for example, of asepsis, from this it probably would not be illicit. For thus the work of man duly furnished remains safe, and only a defect in the work of nature is corrected. - For the whole question of artificial insemination, confer: Allocution of Pope Pius XII to Catholic physicians, September 29, 1949.

939. Principle II. Every conjugal copula of itself apt for generation is per se licit, provided it is instituted for a right end; hence it is necessary that the end on the part of the agent be conformed to the end of the work. - Now the one proper and principal end from the nature of the work is the generation of offspring, to which two secondary ends are joined, but merely subordinately, so that they are true means by which the principal end is more securely obtained: the enjoyment of delight or the calming of concupiscence, and mutual solace or mutual love to be fostered and preserved (n. 769). As Pius XI says in the encyclical Casti Connubii: "Nor are those spouses to be said to act against the order of nature who use their right in a right and natural manner, even if, on account of natural causes, whether of time or of certain defects, new life cannot arise thence. For there are had, both in matrimony itself and in the use of conjugal right, also secondary ends, such as mutual help, mutual love to be fostered, and the calming of concupiscence; these spouses are by no means forbidden to intend, provided always that the intrinsic nature of that act remains safe, and therefore its due ordination to the primary end."

Hence: 1° Spouses can seek conjugal copula, whether for the principal end, or also for a secondary end, but insofar as it is subordinated to the principal end and serves it.

2° Indeed copula can even be demanded by either spouse, and this from justice, so that per se and generally the other party is bound to render it; wherefore it is called the conjugal debt, of which the Apostle speaks, I Cor. VII, 3-5. Hence, for rendering copula, a legitimate end is to render to the other party what is owed to that party from justice; which end, nevertheless, always supposes the primary end of the act or work itself, namely, the generation of offspring.

3° Consequently the Scholastics teach that the conjugal act is legitimated by the goods of matrimony, because through the good of offspring there is had the intention of the due end, through the good of fidelity there is had the due matter insofar as a man approaches his own and not another; and by these the act recedes from two extremes: from pollution or vice against nature and from fornication, holding the mean between the two, and thus it is constituted in the nature of moral virtue, which consists in a mean (q. 49, a. 2).

4° Likewise they teach that in only two modes can spouses come together altogether rightly and honorably so that they are totally excused from sin, namely, for the sake of generating offspring, which regards the first good, namely offspring, and for the sake of rendering the debt, which pertains to the other good, namely fidelity (q. 49, a. 5). To these two ends are reduced the fostering of conjugal love and the remedy of concupiscence, which implicitly tend to the good of offspring and the good of fidelity; for one who would yield to depraved concupiscence and commit a sin of the flesh would break matrimonial fidelity and could harm the good of offspring to be born, and one who would not foster the necessary love would expose these goods to danger.

From this the conclusions follow:

940. Corollaries. - 1° One exercising copula sins who positively excludes the primary end, and gravely if he intends to impede it, or employs means for this.

2° Therefore, he who in completing copula intends a secondary end, for example delight, uniquely or principally, so that the principal end is positively excluded or put after it, sins venially; for there is an inversion of order, namely, a disordered use of a licit thing. Cf. proposition 9, condemned by Innocent XI.

3° Nevertheless, he who explicitly intends a secondary end, for example the calming of concupiscence, and only abstracts from the primary end, acts licitly, because he implicitly intends the principal end to which the act tends from its nature, the whole act, such as it is, existing only for generation.

4° Likewise he who intends to avoid incontinence in himself or in his consort; for here he acts directly from a motive of virtue for preserving continence; on the contrary, he who seeks delight alone acts directly from love of pleasure. Nor is it an objection that the danger of incontinence implies a defect of virtue and therefore sin: this defect is evil, but rather is presupposed to copula; but, this defect standing, to provide a fitting remedy for it by conjugal copula rightly exercised is not evil but good.

5° Nor does he sin who, on account of poverty, weak health, or another honorable end, only wishes with an inefficacious desire that offspring not be conceived, while he uses no illegitimate means for impeding generation, nor positively excludes it in the act, and the act posited is apt for generation.

6° But he sins, and indeed mortally, who approaches his own spouse with an adulterous mind, thinking of another person as present or desiring to have copula with that person; nevertheless, not he who without depraved affection, by thinking of another person, adorns his own wife with the beauty of another in order to excite himself to the conjugal act, although this is dangerous. In a similar way one must speak of a wife thinking of another man, or of his qualities or vigor.

7° The use of marriage is licit also for the sterile and the aged, even if sterility is certain, provided they can complete the act or have hope of completing it, because the act of its nature is ordered to generation, and if generation does not follow, this happens per accidens. Hence the Church blesses their matrimonies.

1. "The work of marriage exercised for pleasure alone entirely lacks every fault and venial defect." - Cf. S. Thomas, Suppl., q. 49, a. 5 and 6.

8° Likewise the conjugal act is licit even if it is foreseen that, from fecundation, the woman will suffer abortion or bring forth dead offspring into the light, because such an effect occurs per accidens and can be permitted for some honorable end of the act itself.

941. Observation. - For better understanding that copula can licitly be had for diverse ends, without the procreation of offspring being explicitly sought or even possible, or without the conjugal act directly and immediately serving the propagation of the human race, it is helpful to observe with Prummer, Th. M., III, n. 690, that the economy of human propagation differs greatly from the propagation of brutes: a) For animals of the female sex are not accustomed to have the instinct, indeed nor the ready power of generating, except for a brief and determined time of each year, and in such a way that often conception is completed by one single union; after this union has been made, they already abhor another carnal joining. On the contrary, human conception can occur at any time of the year, and in such a way that ordinarily it is not completed except by repeated conjugal acts; and, once it has been obtained, the inclination to other unions does not cease. b) The unions of animals are passing, changeable, promiscuous; the marital union of men is one and stable until death. c) The union of animals is ordered only to the material good of the propagation of the species; on the contrary, conjugal copula, since it is a human act, is ordered to the proper end of human life and to the good of the spouses, which is a higher good, as being the good of reason. By all these things it is clear that carnal copula has been permitted to spouses by the Creator and is licit, although generation is not directly and immediately had or intended, for example during pregnancy or sterility, provided it serves the rational good of the spouses themselves.