A Texas physician who reveres the teaching of Humanae Vitae is bringing new hope to men who want to reverse their vasectomies and return to wholeness.
Dr. Mark Hickman
LifeSiteNews is reporting that Dr. Mark Hickman of New Braunfels, Texas is a vasectomy reversal surgeon who has made it his life’s mission to restore sterilized men to fertility and wholeness. He and his clinical team are performing six to eight procedures per week, and are doing so at drastically reduced prices in order to enable more men to afford the operation.
Typically costing anywhere from nine to 22 thousand dollars, Dr. Hickman charges just $3,000.
Statistics show that anywhere from five to seven hundred thousand men undergo sterilization by vasectomy every year in the U.S., but about five percent – or 35,000 – later regret it. The most common reason why men opt for the procedure is because they don’t want another child.
No matter what the reason, Dr Hickman says, when a man takes the step of vasectomy, he is “basically putting himself ahead of God’s will by saying: ‘Well, I think I know a little more about what to do for my sexuality than God does.’”
Calling vasectomy a “disobedience to God’s plan,” he said men opt for the procedure because “they want to be in control of their lives instead of putting the Lord in the rightful command position. Hence the Catholic Church’s admonishment against it and her insistence that if one can afford it, they have it reversed.”
Acknowledging that married couples have legitimate reasons to postpone having children, he recommends they use Natural Family Planning instead.
“Natural Family Planning techniques approved by the Church allow for the responsible, meaningful and thoughtful expression of love within a marriage. Vasectomy, on the other hand, often times has more selfish motivations behind the decision to have it performed. It is an affront to God’s dominion over our lives,” he told LifeSite.
He views his work of vasectomy reversal as an “apostolate” and says he and his team aren’t afraid to share their conviction with patients. In fact, before each reversal procedure, Dr. Hickman prays with the man in the operating room and asks the man’s wife to be present for the procedure.
“Heavenly Father,” he prays, “we humbly come before you today to praise you and to pour out our thanksgiving. We are so grateful that you deal with us in your love and in your mercy. Today this man and this woman come before you to return fertility to your control.”
Maurice Prater, director of the Missionaries of the Holy Family where Hickman serves as a member of the Apostolate Board, called Hickman an example of a “faithful Catholic doctor in the midst of Obamacare’s promotion of an insidious Culture of Death.”
Dr. Hickman and his team rejoice every time they receive news that a formerly sterile man has become a father once again.
“Each time I hear of such blessings it reminds me of how, in our small way, our team is lashing back against the current culture of death that trivializes the sanctity of human life,” he said.
Click here to visit Dr. Hickman’s website and here to read more about his remarkable apostolate.
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