Janet Smith debates Charles Curran on Contraception

Pro-Life activist Dr. Janet Smith debated the dissenter Dr. Charles Curran in front of a packed Dallas audience in 1994. I think the debate is well worth a focused listening because Dr. Smith and Dr. Curran are widely recognized as the top proponents of their respective positions on the contraception issue (at least in the US), and it's a rare occurrence indeed to hear two figures of their stature debating each other live.

[Listen to Part One of the debate] [Listen to Part Two of the debate]

NOTE: Each file is roughly 25mb, so they will take a little while to download even on a broadband connection.

In Part One, Dr. Smith and Fr. Curran give their presentations and rebuttals. In Part Two, they ask each other questions, and then take many more from the audience.

National Catholic Reporter provided coverage of the debate. (poorly, in my opinion)

Over a million copies of Dr. Smith's taped talk "Contraception, Why Not?" have been distributed [read a transcript] [order a free copy]. She is currently serving a second term as a consulter to the Pontifical Council on the Family.

UPDATE: Dr. Smith has also written on this topic "Why Humanae Vitae was right" and "Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later".

NB: It is reaching the end of the month, and I have about 50GB of bandwidth left - I would love to have this bandwidth used up by people downloading and listening to this landmark debate. It's in mp3 format so you can even play it on your iPod. So, please feel free to listen to it yourself and then tell a friend about it, too!

Update: Thanks to others who have linked to it (Curt Jester, Closed Cafeteria) - my bandwidth is humming along and that's what I like to see!

Update 2: Dr. David of C-L-S has an insightful post analyzing Fr. Curran's use of the terms "physicalism" and "biologism" in this debate.