A male pill

[Zor]

Link

Still in the R&D phases, but an interesting development.

Zor

[Highlord Laan]

Cue vatican shitstorm in 3...2...1...

[Mr Bean]

Great I can't wait to start a rumor about them sneaking this into the food at cafeteria's the world over. Considering the issue with unplanned pregnancies I'd ask PesiCo to make it a ingredient in Mountain Dew.

[Tsyroc]

Great I can't wait to start a rumor about them sneaking this into the food at cafeteria's the world over. Considering the issue with unplanned pregnancies I'd ask PesiCo to make it a ingredient in Mountain Dew.

Preferably Code Red.

[Darth Wong]

Perhaps someone could slip it into the soda machines at Chick-Fil-A.

[Flagg]

Perhaps someone could slip it into the soda machines at Chick-Fil-A.

Their food is so good. The irony is that I'd suck a dick to get a sandwich.

[Mr Bean]

Perhaps someone could slip it into the soda machines at Chick-Fil-A.

Their food is so good. The irony is that I'd suck a dick to get a sandwich.

Thus reducing the chance of teen pregnancy! It's a win/win all around, more oral less unwed mothers and more sandwichs!

Out of curiosity what crime would it be under if you slip this to your office coffee and your Catholic friend finds out?

[Terralthra]

Perhaps someone could slip it into the soda machines at Chick-Fil-A.

Out of curiosity what crime would it be under if you slip this to your office coffee and your Catholic friend finds out?

In California, that would probably violate CPC 347(a)(1)

347. (a) (1) Every person who willfully mingles any poison or
harmful substance with any food, drink, medicine, or pharmaceutical
product or who willfully places any poison or harmful substance in
any spring, well, reservoir, or public water supply, where the person
knows or should have known that the same would be taken by any human
being to his or her injury, is guilty of a felony punishable by
imprisonment in the state prison for two, four, or five years.

[PeZook]

The obvious defence to that is to prove it's not harmful

I'd be guessing assault? In Poland there's a legal concept called Violation of Bodily Sanctity that would cover cases of giving people drugs without their consent.

Uh, I think.

[Terralthra]

The obvious defence to that is to prove it's not harmful

I'd be guessing assault? In Poland there's a legal concept called Violation of Bodily Sanctity that would cover cases of giving people drugs without their consent.

Uh, I think.

The right to procreate is protected, at least in the US. cf.:
"Rights to marry, have children and maintain relationship with children are fundamental rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and thus, strict scrutiny is required of any statutes that directly and substantially impair those rights." P.O.P.S. v. Gardner, 998 F2d 764 (9th Cir. 1993)

"We are dealing here with legislation which involves one of the basic civil rights of man. Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race." Skinner v. State of Oklahoma, ex. rel. Williamson, 316 U.S. 535 (1942)

I doubt very much that you'd be able to convince a judge and jury that forced, secret contraceptives aren't "harmful."

[Losonti Tokash]

To say nothing of "the difference between medicine and poison is the dosage."

[Baffalo]

I saw something a while back about a temporary vasectomy done by placing clamps on the vas deferens leading from the testes. Because I can't find any information, I guess it's fallen by the wayside as a viable alternative, but the idea was a small clamp that could be placed to prevent the travel of sperm, but could be easily removed without the more permanent aspect of a vasectomy.

[Alferd Packer]

I saw something a while back about a temporary vasectomy done by placing clamps on the vas deferens leading from the testes. Because I can't find any information, I guess it's fallen by the wayside as a viable alternative, but the idea was a small clamp that could be placed to prevent the travel of sperm, but could be easily removed without the more permanent aspect of a vasectomy.

You may be thinking of RISUG.

That's the method I'm rooting for. Hopefully it will become available in the U.S. within the next few years.

[Simon_Jester]

Sounds like the sort of thing that can do permanent damage if it's not installed right, though; a chemical method might be better.

[Serafina]

It's mostly a matter of getting people to use it in the first place - even if it were 100% safe and reversible, a surgical method still sounds and feels scary - which would mean that most men wouldn't do it.
A pill you can just swallow in the morning each day is nowhere near as scary, especially when it doesn't come with notable sideffects.

Now obviously current hormonal birth control for women does come with a lot of sideffects - but a woman is also much more personally impacted by pregnancy (or the possibility of it). So there is a huge incentive to take the side-effects for the protection it offers - much less so for men. So the sad realiy is most likely that a birth control pill for men would need to be almost side-effect free in order to get anywhere as accepted and widespread as female hormonal birth control.

[FireNexus]

Sounds like the sort of thing that can do permanent damage if it's not installed right, though; a chemical method might be better.

The clamp is different than RISUG. RISUG is a polymer which is injected into the vas and turns it into a sperm minefield. it lets them pass, but destroys them on the way. It's reversible with a bicarbonate injection.

[Simon_Jester]

Injecting something directly into your genitals might be less scary than surgery, but I think it's still scary enough that it won't see widespread adoption. If birth control had to be injected, I suspect fewer women would use it, too.

Pills have more potential that way, if you ask me.

[AMT]

What about a patch? Something that can be absorbed through the skin into the testes? Either way I have to agree that a pill is likely the best bet.

[Korto]

Problem with a pill is the same problem with the female Pill. Remembering to take it. Particularly as I've heard that men are even worse than women (statistically) at remembering to take their medication, which wouldn't be helped by the fact that men don't get pregnant, therefore it would lack the sense of personal urgency. If the pill requires some days straight of taking it to "build up" in your system (seems likely), then it may be that for the footloose and fancy-free, they could find "pulling out" just as effective.
If they could make some kind of slow-release implant, that would be far better.

However, nothing wrong with having another weapon in the Family Planning arsenal.

I remember hearing about a Chinese treatment once where they injected a small drop of some polymer into the vas, which hardened and blocked it, therefore acting as a vasectomy. To be reversed, all they had to do was a small incision and pop the bead out. However, that was something like 20 years ago, and never heard of it since so maybe it wasn't as good as they made out.

[Alferd Packer]

Injecting something directly into your genitals might be less scary than surgery, but I think it's still scary enough that it won't see widespread adoption. If birth control had to be injected, I suspect fewer women would use it, too.

Pills have more potential that way, if you ask me.

The procedure is essentially identical to a vasectomy (except for the smell of your vas sizzling), so one could reasonably expect to be at least as popular as that. RISUG, of course, has fewer side effects and is reliably reversible, so I suspect it will not only gain greater traction over a vasectomy, but will be available to a much younger segment of the population(doctors are unwilling to snip a younger man, as he may want to have children later in life).

[Simon_Jester]

Yes, essentially identical to a vasectomy- which not that many men go for. Compared to the massive impact of The Pill, I think it'd be relatively low-key in its effect.