critical review 1

Good morning to the lecturer___________ and my fellow friends. I wish to review about an article that I have studied recently. The use of condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies and, even more important, the spread of sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) has been controversial. This critical review examines an article that links condom usage to the spread of AIDS. The article, "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS," was written by Anthony Zimmerman, a Catholic priest. As the title of the article indicates, the author is against the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS and other STDs. Although the author has some good points, his article is biased and contains some misinterpretation of data from others’ analysis of the effectiveness of the condom. Now I wished to summarize the whole article briefly. In his introduction, Zimmerman says that condom usage "may break its [AIDS] spread in the short run; but accelerates its spread in the long run" .He bases his conclusion on an analysis done for the World Health Organization (WHO) published in Population Reports. The results from this analysis indicated that condoms users have a one-third lower risk for acquiring STDs compared to non-condom users. This, however, provides small comfort for the author. There are two reasons why condom usage will increase the spread of AIDS. Firstly, the promotion of condoms by the authorities, like teachers and health workers, increases sexual promiscuousity. This leads to miseducation of adolescents, breaking down their natural and cultural barriers against sex before marriage. Secondly, condom usage promotes a false sense of security and a pseudo-responsibility. In his conclusion, the author draws parallels to the Black Death that haunted Europe during the fourteenth century. This is the scenario he pictures if schools promote sexual education. It is already happening in Uganda, he says, where AIDS is endemic.