Discussion regarding Birth Control

I recently met a new friend at a summer get-together and we are sharing our thoughts and beliefs regarding our Catholic Church.  We both consider ourselves Roman Catholic but our views are on total opposite ends of the spectrum.  Having this opportunity to discuss our thoughts and ideas is exciting and stimulating to me as typically many people either don't want to have these types of discussions or else scream and rant and rave about their viewpoints.  Hopefully, thinking more deeply about my beliefs and writing down my thoughts will help me to clarify in my own mind what I actually do and don't believe and why.   I believe that the Catholic Church is too focused on the negative aspects of human sexuality.  Celibacy was never a requirement for the priesthood until the middle ages when the church decided it did not want inheritances to be left to the sons of the clergy and hierarchy.  It wanted the monies to be kept within the church structure.  Human sexuality is a gift from God. After all, God created human sexuality.  I believe that it is "not good for man to be alone".  I believe that God does not expect or want married couples to live together as brother and sister.  If natural birth control (the ideal from many perspectives) fails then married couples should feel no guilt for using other forms of birth control. I honestly believe that to live as brother and sister in a marital relationship is an insult to God. I came to this conclusion many years ago as a young nurse at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY when I gave Birth Control instructions to a sweet, young girl who recently emigrated from Italy to the US.   Her daughter was a patient of mine in the Pediatric Specialty Clinics at Downstate Medical Center.  She had a serious genetic condition known as Thalassemia Major.   When the father and mother carry the trait, each pregnancy has a 1 in 4 chance of the child having the full blown disease.  This is a serious, painful condition and the children affected came to our clinic once every 3 to 4 weeks in order to get life-saving blood transfusions. They do not develop normally and typically (at least back in the late 1960's) died in their teen years.  Prior to this experience, I swallowed the philosophy that artificial birth control was against the "Natural Law".  Asking a young, loving, married couple to live as brother and sister is against the "Natural Law"  and worse yet, I believe it is contrary to the will of a loving God.   I do believe that there are sexual sins, primarily sins that are based on selfishness and hurtfulness (lack of love).  Otherwise, God created sex and made it pleasurable and the Catholic church needs to get over its hangups in this regard. If a person wants to make the sacrifice of celibacy as a special gift given to God, that is their prerogative but I do not believe that it should be a requirement for the priesthood or religious life.  I believe that there is too much emphasis on the marvelous nature of virginity.   What is this indirectly saying about God's creation of man and woman and human sexuality?  What exactly is so special about virginity??