UK Health Service Promotes Teen Sex

DUBLIN, Ireland, JULY 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A British National Health Service pamphlet produced for teens is emphasizing sexual pleasure and is promoting regular intercourse as "healthy" for youth.

The new leaflet produced in Sheffield states that teenagers should be taught, "an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away," the Dublin-based Iona Institute for Religion and Society reported this week.

This pamphlet, titled "Pleasure," has been distributed to teachers, parents and youth workers.

It argues that health personnel focus excessively on promoting "safe sex" and not enough on enjoyment.

The leaflet states: "Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?"

One author of the leaflet, Steve Slack, director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health at Sheffield's National Health Service office, argued that teens have "as much right as an adult to a good sex life."

Doctor Trevor Stammers, a general practitioner and chairman of the Christian Medical Fellowship, told the institute that this pamphlet will only encourage "risky" behavior and an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

He asserted: "I'd like to know what scientific evidence there is to back this up.

"There are an awful lot of overpaid and under-occupied health promotion officers around who are obsessed with sex."

The physician added that if the health service "wants to promote a healthy heart, as it says it does in this leaflet, it should put the money into reducing smoking and alcohol."

"Underage sex is as dangerous as underage drinking and usually leads to sexual ill-health," he said.

The institute pointed out that last week, statistics from a £6 million [$9.9 million] project initiated to reduce teenage pregnancy showed that participants actually conceived more after the program.

It explained that this "failed project" involved the distribution of information about sex and free condoms, and eventually led to calls for the government to "scrap its policy of tackling the problem of underage sexual activity with increasing levels of sex education."

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Iona Institute: http://www.ionainstitute.ie/