Teen pregnancy is nature's way

EDINBURGH, Scotland,

One of Britain's leading fertility doctors says teenage girls who get pregnant "behind the bike shed" are just obeying nature's law.

Dr. Laurence Shaw set off a controversy with his remarks Sunday night at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague, The Czech Republic, the Scotsman reported.

Shaw -- who is deputy medical director of London's Bridge Centre fertility clinic -- said teenage girls should not be automatically condemned when they get pregnant, because females have been programmed by 2 million years of evolution to have babies in their late teens and early 20s, when fertility is at its peak.

He said nature intended for women to bear children when they are young, and for their fertility to diminish while they raise their children.

Family groups and politicians in Scotland -- which has Western Europe's highest rate of teenage pregnancy -- slammed Shaw's comments, The Scotsman said.

Recent statistics indicate abortions in Scotland among girls under 16 have reached record levels.

I love the 'evolution' and 'nature' arguments to procreation. Until there are scientists standing up there defending bands of young man roaming England clubbing boars, pursuing big-hipped women and and sleeping on leaf piles, I think I'll continue to believe that society has outgrown our baser instincts just a bit. While nature obviously has an influence, actions take place in the context of our modern cultures, and we are still responsible for our own behavior.