Introduction
Contraception is usually considered an issue of sexual ethics rather than one proper to bioethics. But contraception is quite relevant to respect for human life. Contraception is not itself a sexual act but rather accompanies a sexual act. Obviously one can engage in sex and not contracept; copulating couples who contracept engage in two acts: they choose to copulate and they choose to contracept. Here I will argue that contraception is an anti-life kind of act and leads to the “culture of death.”

First, I will present Pope Benedict’s teaching on life issues in the encyclical and then offer comments thereon.

The Pope’s Teaching
Pope Benedict XVI addresses issues related to the sanctity of human life and human sexuality in depth in three different areas of his new social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).
In Chapter 2, titled “Human Development in Our Time,” the Pope begins by saying: “One of the most striking aspects of development in the present day is the important question of respect for life (emphasis in original), which cannot in any way be detached from questions concerning the development of peoples. It is an aspect which has acquired increasing prominence in recent times, obliging us to broaden our concept of poverty and underdevelopment to include questions connected with the acceptance of life, especially in cases where it is impeded in a variety of ways (emphasis added) (no. 28, 1). He then goes on to declare:

As now is widely known, Pope Benedict XVI recently issued his third Encyclical, entitled Caritas in Veritate [1].  Most of us are familiar with pope’s issuing encyclicals.  But some of us might not be clear on what precisely an encyclical is.   In this blast I would like to explain briefly some pertinent points about the nature and issuing of papal encyclicals.