3 Basic Laws

• Eternal law- will of God

- divine revelations
• Natural law
- human reason and experience used to determine what actions best serve true human welfare- nature
of man
- divine revelation manifested through reason
• Positive law
- dictated by the authority of the church or state

Properties of Natural Law

1. Universal 3. Recognizable
2. Obligatory 4. Unchangeable

CONTENTS OF NATURAL LAW

1. Fundamental Principles
“Good is to be done and evil to be avoided”
“Never do to others what you would not want them done unto you”
2. General Moral Principles
Sustain and treasure the basic relations of man to God, to himself and neighbors
“Adore God, Honor your father and mother”; Preserve life
3. Application of General Principles of Morality to specific situations in Life and Society

CONSCIENCE
“To follow one’s conscience “
• To follow feelings or emotions
• To follow law or custom
• Blind obedience to the inspiration of God
• Follow personal freedom and autonomy
“The capacity to make practical judgments in matters involving ethical issues”

Conscience
• Involves reasoning about moral principles
• Must be rooted in reality and truth and not on mere will or desire or blind choice
• Sound, true and certain conscience- own perception, sound education, understanding of natural law,
traditional wisdom, teachings of family and Church, experience
• Conscience can be in error as when one misunderstands principles, misjudges facts or is led by
misguided affections
• One is culpable of an erroneous decision of conscience only within one’s capability and freedom to
prevent the error.

Qualities of Conscience
A. Personal freedom
- Free
- Unfree- impeded by some obstacles such as fear and anger
B. Objective Value
- correct- subjective conforms to the objective moral values
- Objective- norms of morality
- Erroneous- lack of conformity to the objective norms of morality
- Culpable- one is in error and therefore responsible
- Inculpable- has erred in good faith
D. Degree of certitude
- Perplexed- wrong if you don’t do; wrong if you did
- Doubtful- lack of sufficient evidence
- Probable- made a decision already but still admitting the possibility that the opposite is true
- Certain
 CONSCIENCE FORMATION
• Faced with a specific ethical dilemma, one should use his conscience.
• Making moral decisions demand mature responsibility
• A fully mature and responsible conscience should be free, correct, clear and certain
• Discerning what is right and what is wrong
• We must follow our decision only after we have done our best to search for the truth regarding the
issues facing us

Theories of Ethics
• Utilitarianism- telos- “end”
- right action is that which has the greatest utility and no action is in itself either good or bad
- consequentialism- action is judged as good or bad in relation to the consequence, outcome or end
that is derived from it
- “the end justifies the means”- sometimes it is possible to do wrong to achieve “right”
- the only right action are those that produce the greatest happiness to all concerned

Utilitarianism
- “Primary responsibility is to support the interest of the group”
- Example: One child policy of China
Poor man stealing to feed his family

Teleology
• Advantages:
- easy to use
- can justify many decisions based on the happiness principle
• Disadvantages:
- average happiness of all or total happiness for few
- harm can be done to the minority
- what constitutes happiness? Who determines what is good?
- end justifies the means

Deontology
• Deon- “duty”- “duty oriented”
- rationalist view that the rightness or wrongness of an act depends upon the nature of the act rather
than the consequences that occur as a result of it
- human beings have the freedom, thoughtfulness and sensibility to act in a moral manner- knows what
he/she ought to do
- Respect for person worth/dignity
- Person’s action right if it follows moral rules-fair, honest, doing good
- A person’s action is wrong, without exception, if it violates these rules

• Deontology
- Consequences (-), action still ethically right if the original motive is consistent with moral precepts
-Kantianism- “ One treats others always as ends and never as a means” – respect for person- making a
person’s end your own- treating others the same way you treat yourself
- Nurses code of ethics- importance of fulfilling duties that are inherently owed to patients

Deontology
- The nurse is duty bound to act under moral rules that establish the right or wrong :
a. duty to honor a patient’s autonomy
b. duty to promote good and well-being
c. duty to be just and fair
d. duty to do no harm
e. duty to tell the truth
f. duty to keep promises and confidentiality
 - A person has free will and self-determination and can refuse any medical or nursing treatment or
procedure
- A right action is only right if it is done out of sense of duty
• Advantages
- provides clear guidelines for judging the rightness and wrongness of an act
- recognizes the dignity and autonomy of individuals and allows all people equal consideration
• Disadvantages
- problem with disregard for consequences
- all ethical precepts are viewed as equally important
- exceptionless and rigid

CONSCIENCE FORMATION
• Diligently learning the laws of moral life
• Seeking expert advice on difficult cases
• Asking God for light through prayer
• Removing the obstacles to right judgment
• Personal examination of conscience
“My conscience is my guide”
“What I don’t know can’t hurt me”
“It is God’s will”

Principle of Well-Formed Conscience

To attain the true goals of human life by responsible actions, in every free decision involving an ethical
question, people are morally obliged to do the following:
A. Informed themselves as fully as practically possible about the facts and the ethical norms
B. Form a morally certain judgment of conscience on the basis of this information
C. Act according to this well formed conscience
D. Accept responsibility for their actions

Conscience Formation
• At times, when faced with a specific ethical dilemma, one can often not find a solution that is satisfying
to everybody. One should be willing to struggle with the issue, move beyond opposing views to a realm
of moral certitude and make the required hard choices.