Young, Single Men Turn to Vasectomies for "Liberation"

Via Feminist Law Professor Bridget Crawford:

The August 2008 issue of Details magazine reports on a new “trend” in young men receiving vasectomies. In  ”The Birth-Control Extremists” Richard Morgan writes:

[L]ately, vasectomies are becoming the province of young, single men who claim to be tired of worrying about their partners’ vigilance with the Pill. So rather than use condoms—less than ideal in terms of pleasure and, compared with vasectomies, which have an estimated 1 in 2,000 failure rate, only so-so on the contraception front—they’re opting for a permanent fix. * * *

Men taking responsibility for birth control is a salutary move, but Details author Morgan fails to mention that condoms are not just contraceptive devices (duh).  They are also a means to reduce or eliminate the risk that one will give (or get) a sexually-transmitted disease.  In the AZT era, are young men not concerned about HIV infection?  Genital warts, anyone?  And will vasectomies be just another “excuse” for men to avoid condom use?  (”Don’t worry, baby, I got snipped.”) 

Full post is here.  The article is available here.