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Ultrasound As a Male Contraceptive
TeslaBoy writes "The BBC has an article about using ultrasound aimed at the testicles as a reversible male contraceptive. This can last for six months. With a grant of $100,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers at the University of North Carolina will push ahead with more clinical trials, fine tuning, and safety tests."
This can last for six months.
There are a number of areas in my life where YMMV is fine, and I'll take the risk, but I don't think contraception will be one of them.
If this is cheap and effective, it sounds like a good decision. If you're in a monogamous relationship, say bye-bye to condoms! You also don't have to subject your female partner to a birth control regimen, which throws her hormones out of whack and can have all kinds of terrible side effects like migraines, random menstrual flow, etc.
Raters gon' rate.
I'm happy using abstinence as a contraceptive.
See, you -say- you're happy, but then you say you're abstaining... which is it?
Eliminating disease is about population control. Wherever there is high mortality rates there is high population growth. It's just human nature: death is all around, make more babies.
How we know is more important than what we know.
You're mischaracterising nature. More organisms means more intra-specific competition (inter-specific is bothersome too, if you're environmentalist). Free minds and/or those chained by instinct are, by and large, not altruistic.
There are lots of underprivileged/dying people you could help if you wanted to "continue the species", farm "taxpayers for social programs", or help fulfil "potential to do something great".
If you want kids, have kids, but don't deny that it's the supremely selfish act.
Man. I'm gonna start tin-foiling my nuts. Ultrasound emitters can be made compact enough to hide anywhere. It'd be trivial to hide them under ATM's, seats in public places, etc. This leads to all sorts of spooky eugenics conspiracy scenarios.
If you're a well-to-do ivy league educated white liberal, you'll be fine. Only undesirables will be targeted.
A bunch of dumb people on slashdot making stupid, worn out jokes about them?
If you want kids, have kids, but don't deny that it's the supremely selfish act.
Maybe for you. I can think of nothing more selfish than to deny the awesomeness of my genes to future generations ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
yes, Bill gates made a donation, clearly that means MS will ahve access.
also, Bill Gate bought a slurpee and 7-11 so now MS is spying on you in all 7-11.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I would imagine that people said the same thing about the birth control pill 50 years ago.
How's abstinence working out for your priests, after all? Apparently, not too well, because they're all secretly molesting young boys.
Abstinence has nothing to do with that. I've been pretty sexually frustrated at times in my life (cue /. living in Mom's basement jokes...) and I've never looked at little boys as an outlet for my energies. One can be horny without becoming a pedophile.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
yes, they should listen to some boob on the internet who has no idea what there talking about instead if investing money with experts who understand what they are doing.
Just because your on the internet with an opinion doesn't make you an expert.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
oh have a sense of humor.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
The vasectomy fright is so overblown. I had it done 2 months ago. Go to a urologist who has experience (say 1000+ procedures) and does is regularly. The doctor I went to does them all day on Fridays. It's done in 15 minutes. Put an icepack on your nuts and watch some movies and sports for the weekend. Keep the kids away from your midsection. By the following weekend it's pretty much forgotten.
"Married people don't have sex" is such a tired cliche. If you're in that situation, sorry, that sucks, but it's not supposed to be that way. At age 40 with elementary school kids, I'm glad we made the decision. Plan ahead and put an extra $500 (or whatever your out-of-pocket expense might be) on your company Flex Plan to get it subsidized tax free.
Flamebait? Yikes, where are the technically inclined people on this site now, can you HEAR the ultrasound? sigh.
You can't handle the truth.
How is that "the" supremely selfish act compared to, say, dumping toxic waste on 3rd world water supplies in order to save a buck? Or buying up a business, raiding the pension fund, and selling off the parts for profit while thousands of people wonder where their job and retirement went? Or abusing your status as a police officer in order to get a sad power kick?
Having a kid basically means devoting very large chunks of your life to someone else. You're giving up 2 years of doing anything, 3 further years of any daytime activities, then 15 years of having control over your own life. And why? So you can create a life that will hopefully go off into the wild and make society a better place.
Some people want to help a million people a little bit. A lot of people want to help one or two people a whole lot. Is it "supremely selfish" because it is something they want to do? Does this now mean that the only selfless acts that matter are the acts of self-flagellation that nobody wants to do? In the kinds of developed countries that post on slashdot, the birthrate generally has fallen below 1 child per 1 person. Clearly the problem can't be overpopulation, at least not here.
Really, the only way raising children could be considered "the supremely selfish act" is if you start from the position that human beings are bad, and more human beings are more bad. We have enough food to feed everybody currently, we're just terrible at distributing it. We have enough water for now. And peak oil is happening one way or another. Arguably, we'll be off of the oil standard faster the more scientists we can raise. And again, if you don't count immigration the population of most developed countries is declining.
The ______ Agenda
How do you propose that society support people who have 12 kids, like the Octomom?
Stop supporting people who can't take care of themselves and the problem solves itself naturally in short order. Yes, that's cold and heartless, but I would take the loss of the welfare state over the loss of my right to control my own body. Telling me how many kids I'm allowed to have is not compatible with Western notions of freedom and self-determination.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
That would fall under the purvey of the "safety research" that the Gates are funding. It's not like they're opening clinics in 7-11 just yet.
The ______ Agenda
If we are to remain a society that values freedom and self-determination you have no right at all to tell me whether or not I can have kids or how many I can have.
Society has every right to remove freedoms when the society is threatened. People who commit crimes don't have any freedom; they're locked in ugly jail cells for years or decades at a time. People who drive in cars don't have the freedom to drive the wrong way, because that causes accidents and death. Society places all kinds of limits on your freedom. You don't have the freedom to earn money and keep it all for yourself: you have to pay part of it to the government as "taxes", or you go to jail. You don't have the freedom to smoke an easily-grown herb either, you can be sent to prison for that too.
If society reaches the point where there's too many people, and not enough resources, then your "right" to have 20 kids will be seen as a threat to society's health, and your rights will be curtailed. China has already reached this point and enacted restrictions on breeding. Not coincidentally, they are advancing very rapidly as a society, from a backwards agrarian society to the #1 exporter of goods. You may not like their limits on freedom (I don't either), but their policies are definitely working.
As for the "F" word, I'm not sure you know what it means.
"If you want kids, have kids, but don't deny that it's the supremely selfish act."
Maybe selfish in the sense that breathing air or drinking water is supremely selfish, but not in the sense that it is morally incorrect.
I say that, because not having children because of your own ideology is just as selfish from the unborn potential child's perspective.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Ha HA! Wow! Cuompulsory state sponsored sterilization! What a whackjob, he actually WAS serious! So tell us, did you work at Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald in the '40s?
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
WOOSH!
I think the posters point was that there are tons of kids available to be adopted. There is no need to breed your own. All of what you said can be done with an adopted child. You know, the ones that are here already and need help now.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
So, Mr. Fascist, which other parts of the UNDHR would you like to repeal? The right to peaceful assembly? The right to rest and leisure? Equal treatment before the law without regard to race or class? Perhaps you'd like to get rid of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion? It's a monstrous path you tread, and the fact that you're +5 insightful instead of -1 Fascist Thug is chilling.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I'd agree with you, if my tax money didn't go for paying for the things those tons of kids use. (Seems to me there should be a tax *increase* with more kids, rather than tax *breaks* for more kids. Give probably 2 "free" kids, then a tax on a family with more kids.... and I say that as a third child.)
...I might consider it. There's no more selfish act in the world than having your own children.
If only your parents had the same views.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
All of the good that you devote to another human being when you have a child can be done by adopting. There are *so* many children out there, in every country, that need parents. Requiring that your child be a genetic descendant is pure egotism. "Forget that other kid that I could be raising, I want a shiny new one, that looks like me and has my genes".
No, this doesn't come from the position that humans are bad and more are worse. It comes from the position that an adopted child you raise will take after you in the most important ways, you still get all the benefits of parenthood and, as a plus, you're doing good for someone else who otherwise might have had a shitty life. The insistence of people on having their own is pure selfishness.
Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
-They didn't say ANYTHING to me about it affecting fertility.
Simply wearing tight pants/underwear affects your fertility. What on earth made you think an ultrasound would improve your fertility in any way?
moox. for a new generation.
Having a kid basically means devoting very large chunks of your life to your own sperm. You're giving up 2 years of doing anything, 3 further years of any daytime activities, then 15 years of having control over your own life. And why? So you can send your own genes off into the wild and ensure the continuation and possible dominance of your DNA on the human species.
Only an idiot let's his wife talk him into that. It's hardly unheard of for a woman to get her husband to have the operation then later leave him and decide that she's just finished having kids with him.
Ultimately it's his body, if she wants to finish things off, perhaps she should have surgery herself. Or is that people own their own bodies stuff only applicable to female bodies?
I owe you an apology. Earlier I said that I rolled my eyes when I you used the word 'fascism'. I'm usually skeptical when people use words like that, because it's typically done simply to inflame the discussion. I've changed my tune after the dialogue with Grishnakh. He genuinely seems to believe that Government should have the ability to regulate procreation and that the tyranny of the majority is sufficient justification to strip away freedoms. Subordinate yourself to the state! Society as defined by us knows better than you.
Scary stuff.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
All these comments and no one pointed out how unlikely it is that:
AmberBlackCat is a guy pretending to be a girl
AmberBlackCat claims to have a friend
AmberBlackCat claims that friend is a girl
Whats the likelyhood of all 3 of those applying to the same person ... ON SLASHDOT?
Yea, I didn't think so.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
"Married people don't have sex" is such a tired cliche
It's a cliche that's about to earn my wife a divorce. She started curtailing it six months after marriage because she was embarrassed that she was getting fat, and it dried up pretty fast. The hell with her; I can fuck my right hand all day and all night for free. BTW if you do find yourself in this situation do yourself a favor: DO NOT CHEAT. Divorce her first - and I mean make sure it's final, certificate in hand and everything. Way too many guys think that separation means they can play the field. Not so.
It's not that easy to adopt a kid in the United States.
There's also the matter that some of us actually have an attachment to our family, history, culture, etc and would like to ensure that it survives for another generation. I don't think that's selfish at all, though some would probably disagree.
In other words, "it's easier" and "I think my genes are more important."
You've just spelled out in great detail why procreating is indeed significantly more selfish than adopting.
Wow...you are a selfish one..
It's hardly unheard of for a man to get his wife to have the operation done for more sex. Only to find out he has another woman on the side....
What is a 15 min surgery for a man is a much bigger/riskier surgery for a woman. With much more risk of problems in later life leading to a second surgery.
Unless your a self centered child then it's not a tough choice. Real men step up.
I would tend to imagine that the number of people who have never wasted some sperm in their lives is close to absolute 0.
So between that and no contraception, what's the difference?
If God gave us wet dreams, he gave us the right to waste sperm in little rubber containers. Or spray it all over the wall, for all he cares. I mean, it's a little hard to believe that God expects us to be chief financial officer for little dudes we create in the billions.
I would expect it is simply much more logical to assume those religious beliefs were codified in times where we really didn't have a clue how all the plumbing worked.
Between more effective methods of avoiding creating real world problems and assuming that those beliefs reflect the true will of God, I know which side I fall on. Pluck a person who's never been exposed to the teachings of the church, and they would have never ever even considered such a theological limitation. People get it from their churches, who got it from older folks, who got it from older folks ... there are some notions that, even if I accept the possibility of a theology, are far more likely simply to be a spiritual case of broken telephone.
"Old man yells at systemd"
My wife is in the same boat. I think the stories like this that I used to hear before are the reason why the divorce rate is so high in the US. People drift and needs are unmet.
Of course, my wife won't do shit around the house either, so that's another problem.