condoms and AIDS

Some of the material in the recent posts on this issue seemed to suggest that the moral issue is settled in favor of allowing the use of condoms in an attempt to avoid the spread of AIDS. It is true that some moral theologians who defend Humanae Vitae (e.g., Martin Rhonheimer) have argued in favor of this position. (Cardinal Martini, whose specialty is Scripture, defended the use of condoms--as a lesser evil--in a way that is not consistent with Rhonheimer's argument and that is not consistent with the traditional formulations of the principle of double effect--that principle doesn't allow one to choose an evil at all and in fact one of the standard conditions is that the act chosen is good or morally indifferent, albeit one that has an evil as a side effect.)

I think there is still a lot of debate on this question, as Rob's recent update indicates. For example, Luke Gormally recently published an article, "Marriage and the Prophylactic Use of Condoms," in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (Vol. 5; Winter 2005; pages 735-749) that is basically a critique of Rhonheimer's position. (Luke Gormally, the former executive director of the Linacre Centre in London, is a Research Professor at Ave Maria School of Law and he first delivered this paper here at Ave Maria.) I think Peter Cataldo has taken the same position as Gormally in an article published in Ethics and Medics and that Janet Smith has also defended the position that the use of condoms in an attempt to avoid the spread of AIDS, although I don't think that article has yet been published.

Richard