Teen pregnancy, Jamie Lynn Spears

I gather from the news radio that an actor (actress, if you prefer, but would you call a female doctor a doctress?), Britney Spears' sister, Jamie, is pregnant. This would probably escape the attention of the media and the public if she did not also play the title character in Zoey 101, a TV show on Nickelodeon. Like most people, I have a few thoughts on this.

From the point of view of a medical provider: my job is to look after a patient's health interests. Just as I would discuss the value of an immunization against the measles, and the value of simple hand washing to reduce the spread of disease, I'll be discussing the value of safe sex - what it is, how it work, how successful it is, etc.

I know that there are parents who don't want their children to learn about these subjects until they are quite old, or are married. I think that I understand their concerns. Our society has long repressed sexuality, condemning it and its discussion, so there's a taboo to overcome. To intelligently discuss love and sex (two separate things) necessarily involves facing our own beliefs, which the parent may not be comfortable doing. The discussion also acknowledges that their child is getting older, which by extension means that they, the parent is also getting older. It's not just the poets who connect sex and death.

Maybe if we were less uptight about death, we'd be less uptight about sex.

Morality and religion also are involved. If, as parents, we firmly believe that sex outside of marriage is sinful, then instructing our children how to have sex feels like a betrayal to our beliefs and our children's well-being. But it doesn't have to be. A discussion of safe sex can very easily include a discussion of morals. Frankly, it should. Sex is a biological need, but it is often more than a mere mechanical act; it involves and entangles emotions and human relationships. Kids and teens have limited experience (they haven't lived long enough to accumulate it) and can benefit from a parent's guidance.

As a medical provider, I specifically will not discuss the morals of sex and sexuality. First, it's not my position to do so, but more importantly, moral judgment on my part can only interfere with good medical care.