pleasure. There is no doubt that great pleasure is derived from sex and the passion associated with it. This drive has led mankind to great invent ions to achieve maximum pleasure from this good given gift. However, human sexuality needs to be directed towards the right channel for the proper achievement of love, happiness, int imacy and lifelong commitment t o a partner for the sake of stability and peace in human society.

Pope Paul VI knew about this brazen appetite in modern times and began to warn the modern world about t he inappropriate applicat ion of human sexuality for the future of family and social life. Anything on sexuality that falls outside the sphere of family portends a sin wit h grave consequences for individual and conjugal life. Thus Paul VI’s Humane Vitae incurred a wide condemnat ion from 1968 and forty years after pro-choice still condemn its prophet ic message. The brazen applicat ion of sexual pleasure oft en leads men and women int o self-love resulting in numerous aberrant pleasure behaviours as witnessed in recent years.

This write-up concent rates on self-love commonly referred t o as masturbation. Human sexuality [McMahon, 1987:411] is defined in the following wordings, “ as the personal power to share physically, psychically and spiritually the gift of self with self and others. Sharing involves giving and receiving – not giving and getting. I will simply suggest that every person may be regarded as sexual [male or female] in as much as he or she has t he nat ural power t o share self.”

But in the sexual domain, this power t o share love is often shared in different modes. Sex is never a random affair, a kind of “ yours for t he asking.” It must be expressed in genuine love and intimacy for life. Not everybody is married at the same time as such t here are certain acts considered eit her illegal or pervasive or sinful which negate the purpose of human sexuality. Masturbat ion is one of those aberrant bahaviours often classified along with acts of adultery, premarital sex/fornication, rape, homosexual/ lesbian acts in the sphere of sexual et hics.

Moral theologians often ask the quest ions: Are there some sexual act ions that can be generally prescribed or always proscribed? Can such moral norms of sexual perversion be universally applied or required? Many theologians have had debat es and series of argument s among t hemselves on t hese et hical issues. Here our attention will focus on masturbation as one of the aberrant sexual behaviours against chastity and sexual sanctity.

The term masturbation means self sexual stimulation, self-love caused by fantasy and manipulation of the genital organs towards orgasm or seminal release of tension. Masturbation employs the power of imagination and