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What are the "Culture of Death" sins?

The students asked me to come up with a list of actions which are considered objectively evil according to the teachings of the Catholic Church when it pertains to life issues and sexuality. Violations against the 5th, 6th, and 9th commandments, specifically. Remember, for a person to be morally culpable they have to have full consent and full knowledge that these are grave sins.

If I'm missing something please let me know so I can update the document. If you have questions about why certain actions are considered sinful, please feel free to email me your questions.

Culture of Death sins

· Contraception (the birth control pill, condoms, any method of unnaturally preventing conception such as the nuvaring, contraceptive mentality/lack of openness to life etc.)

· Using Natural Family Planning (NFP) for reasons which are not grave

· Abortion

· Morning after Pill (Plan B pill)

· Sterilization (getting your tubes tied for women, vasectomy for men)

· Selling your eggs

· Selling sperm

· Freezing your eggs, or embryos

· Surrogacy

· In-Vitro Fertilization

· Invocell

· Artificial insemination

· Euthanasia

· Cloning

· Designer babies

· Embryonic stem cell research (adult stem cell research is okay)

· Gender reassignment surgery/Hormone “therapy” for trans

· Suicide

Sexual sins

· Premarital sex/Cohabitation/free unions/sexual acts outside of marriage

· Extra-marital sex/Adultery/Divorce-remarriage outside the Church

· Lust/Objectification (indulging impure thoughts, masturbation, pornography, sex trafficking, any kind of sexual abuse, sexting)

· Homosexual actions (not the attraction or inclination)

· Selling sex (prostitution)

· Polygamy

Further reading:

Catechism of the Catholic Church: Paragraphs: 2258-2317

Compendium of the Catholic Church: Paragraphs: 466-479 and 487-502

To download a PDF document, click here.

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