Abstract
This opinion survey on sex and bioethics was carried out in March and April of 1988 by the special committee for family planning and sex related problems which the JMCA (President Dr. Yasuro Anno) had drawn up. This study deals with the analysis of 229 responses to the 3 questions concerning contraception, natural family planning and induced abortion respectively. The background factors of the respondents, sex, age, baptismal age, region (by archdiocese), speciality (clinical, fundamental and social medicine), and payment of the membership fees during the past 3 years were investigated by means of the multiple regression analysis. In addition to the age factor which clearly influenced the responses of each question, the regional factor showed significant influences on the responses to the contraception as well as natural family planning questions. The author proposes five operational hypotheses (A－E) to explain these phenomena, and concludes that it is important to undertake interdisciplinary research as well as to conduct continuous education programs concerning biomedical ethics among the catholic physicians in Japan.
