UNDERSTANDING

CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND

MORALITY
the why (right ethics)
behind the what of special
issues (morality, the activity
of lived experience)

The disagreement of moral decisions at the level of

concrete issues
can be traced to

the different understandings of the theoretical

foundational concerns of ethics
... may not be absolute ethical rules (situational
relativism)

Because focusing on behavior and rules do not give

sufficient understanding of the scope of moral
reflection

A rational person has to consider the circumstances

which make up the moral behavior.

amoral actions
indifferent-which stands neutral in relation to the norm
of morality-they may become good or bad because
of the circumstances attendant to them.
No action in and of itself can be evaluated as being
either morally good or morally evil.
moral actions
the human activity of lived experience of what he
believes (performed) by reason to be right or good.
It is the human person who performs the act who is
virtuous or sinful, not the act that is performed.

the accuracy (rightness or wrongness) of a persons

lived experience or way of acting is dependent on
...
ethics
how a person ought to act in a given situation/
circumstance
requirement: to do a reflective intellectual
investigation into what is the morally right thing to
do.

a)Reason (rationality) centered on the Divine law and

the Natiural law that demands the preservation of the
natural order and forbidding its violation
Basic Principle: Do Good and Avoid Evil
b) Freewill (choice) moral responsibility value-based;
non-threatening, reflective of the future consequences;
choice based on ethical norms and ethical standards.

1.Self-Preservation promotes health, vigor and vitality (a

moral choice and action to promote the kind of self-giving
which sustains the well-being of life).
2. Treat others with dignity and respect: JUSTICE! (avoid
exploitation, seduction, deception, cheating, harassment,
intimidation...)
The great moral implication of the person As subject is
that no one may use a human person as an object or as a
means to an end the way we do to other things in the
world.

3. Perpetuate and not to pervert or thwart your species

any act of intervention that will frustrate and stifle the
very purpose for which the human reproductive organ
have been by nature designed is unnatural, hence, is
evil.
example:
Every right entails a duty, and the rights that belongs
to the person as subject entail the duty of demanding
respect for them (i.e. A sick person demands medical
care; a PUJ driver may demand a fare that is honestly
given for the service rendered and the like...)

ORIGINAL SIN
refers to
1. The first originating sin which brought evil and
brokenness into the world marked by the tension
between sin and grace.
2. It is the actual sinful situation into which we are
born with the inner affect of disordered desires
(concupiscence- a human persons involuntary
inclination to sin and connivance with the sins of
others prior to choice.)
Moral Objection:
1. Original Sin is not an inherited sin or guilt that a
person at birth did not personally commit;
2. Original Sin presupposes that human nature is

How does a person retrieve a sense of sin in an adult

(mature) manner?
A sense of moral responsibility.
...that in every moral decision made by a rational
person, God is actively working in all his actions.
If being responsible sums up the quality of character
and action marking Christian moral living...
...sin will mark the failure to be fully responsible.

What determines the rightness and wrongness of

concrete individual human actions?
Actions must be considered in connection with the
intention, the object that is being pursued, and
circumstances surrounding the performance of the
act (knowledge, use of freedom/ irresponsible
freedom).
Therefore, we are acting in a morally good way when
we do what we know or truly think to be objectively
right on the basis of our well-informed conscience,
and...

er
ia
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sin bje
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M
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a
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P on g
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For
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At

different
times,
depending
on
varying
circumstances, wrong actions can exists on THREE
LEVELS OF REALITY

Thus a wrong act may be ...

1. MORAL EVIL OR SIN / FORMAL/ SUBJECTIVE SIN the
wrong act is done with full knowledge and
irresponsible freedom
2. OBJECTIVE MORAL WRONG/ MATERIAL/ OBJECTIVE
SIN the harmful act is performed under the
influence of internal or subjective extenuating
circumstances.

Thus the person may think that the act is right but
be mistaken, or

the person may know the act is wrong but yield

anyway due to passion, fear, or desire for pleasure.

3. PREMORAL OR ONTIC WRONG/ EVIL the wrong or

harmful act is done under external or objective
extenuating circumstances that constitute or
provide a sufficient or proportionate reason for
performing the act.
See notes for examples: masturbation, therapeutic
abortion, poor man starving to death and steals,

TRUE OR FALSE

The gift of freedom allows us to choose as demanded

by reason to do what is morally good and to do evil.

Characteristics
1. FREEDOM IS PERFECTED OF THE INDIVIDUAL
-

goal-oriented, self-determined goal, not predetermined

knowingly accepts responsibility for ones actions
and perceived consequences
failure- represents a falling away from the ideal,
established, planned by the person

2. FREEDOM IS A TASK AND A PROCESS

- Creative responsibility when a person decides to do
an act in a situation and according to what is

Characteristics
3. FREEDOM AND VALUE
-

The need for norms/ ethical standards that will

assure the authenticity of an act in the direction it
takes.

4.

PERSONAL FREEDOM
COMMUNITY

IS

PERFECTED

IN

THE

- True freedom is culture bound and community

oriented.

NOTE: Conscience is
- not the source of good and evil
- does not create the law
BUT
-

Judges the correct application of the norm/ethics to

concrete action

FUNCTION - examines, judges on all moral actions

and determines what ought to be done in a given
action. Its conclusion is drawn from evidence
(inferential reasoning), it makes use of the

LEVELS
1. Instinctive dominated by fear of punishment and
desire for approval.
2. Moral/ethical level the recognition of the inner
good or evil of the moral act and their responsibility
for the performance of the act, with the help of
ethical norms.
3. Religious stage faith (relationship with God)
actively illumines the moral life of the person.

KINDS
1. Antecedent judges what is good as good & what
is evil as evil, to discover the permissibility of the
course of action.
Stages:
I. Moral Discernment the person tries to discover
the demands of the value of the act being/ to be
performed and whether that action being
considered is permissible.
II. Moral Dictate the moral demands of an action

KINDS
III. Moral Decision the decision of the person on how
he/she will finally do the action.
2. Erroneous judges incorrectly that what is good as
evil and what is evil is good.
a. The mistake in inferential thinking deriving a
wrong conclusion from a given moral principle.
b. Ignorance of the law
c. Ignorance of the fact and other circumstances
modifying human action
d. Ignorance of future consequences

TYPES
I. Inculpable (invincible) whose error is not wilfully
intended (involuntary).
II. Culpable (vincible) whose error is due to neglect
or malice
3. Concomitant Actual subjective assurance of the
lawfulness or unlawfulness of a certain act. This
applies to persons who are sure of his discision.
4. Doubtful unable to form a definite judgment on a
certain action. Doubts should settled before an

KINDS
5. Scrupulous/ Consequent Actual extremely afraid of
committing evil; is meticulous and wants certain
proofs before the person acts; reviews and reevaluates ones own perception of values.
6. Lax a person who refuses to be bothered about
the distinction of good and evil, and is quick to
justify itself.
NOTE: insofar as conscience operates within the realm
of truth and sound reason, it is compulsory. When
error creeps in, trace its roots and eradicate it.

voluntariness

Extrinsi
c evil
Intrinsic evil

Human
acts

acts of
man

Human
acts

actions
performed
knowingly
(deliberated), freely (intended), and voluntarily.
- results of a conscious knowledge and
subject to the control of the will.
Acts of Man are instinctive and not within the control
of the will. They are biological and physiological
movements (metabolism, respiration, fear, anger,
love and jealousy)

Intrinsic evil actions that are prohibited at all times

under any circumstances because their nature is
defective (suicide is intrinsically evil and remains
immoral whatever is its justification).
Extrinsic evil certain factors attached to the action
performed by way of circumstances render them
opposed to the norm of morality (drinking liquor,
smoking, therapeutic abortion).

voluntariness
1. Perfect (ref. formal/subjective) a person who fully
knows and fully intends an act.
2. Imperfect (ref. material/objective) a person who
acts without fully intending to do the act.
3. Conditioned forced by circumstances beyond
his/her control to perform an act which he/she
would not do under normal conditions.

Can be person be accountable for results

not directly intended?
e.g.

Necking & petting,

excessive smoking & drinking liquor,
teenage sexual activities with multiple partners
non-marital sex scandals
YES!

A person is accountable for indirectly voluntary results

of his acts when:

1. The doer is able to foresee the evil results or

effects, at lease in a general way;
2. The doer is free to refrain from doing that which
would produce the foreseen evil;
3. The doer has a moral obligation not to do that
which produces an evil effect.

e.g. Maternal health; therapeutic abortion; the

homeless man story; use of condoms; drugs,
and the like.
NOTE:
A person is held morally responsible for any evil effect
which flows from the action itself directly and
necessarily as a natural consequence, though the
evil effect is not directly willed or intended.
A human act from which two effects may result, one
good and one evil, is morally permissible under four
conditions:

1. The action which produces double effects must be

good in itself, or at least morally indifferent;
2. The good effect must not come from the evil effect.
To do evil in order to achieve something good is not
justified.
3. The motive of the doer must be towards the
attainment of the good. The evil effect is permitted
only as an incidental result;
4. The effect must outweigh the evil result in its
importance.

NOTE:
We cannot judge the morality of the physical action
without reference to the meaning of the whole
action which includes the intention of the human
person.

Can the end justify any means?

Only an action congruent (proportionality) with the
intention adequately expresses the intention.

E.g. the use of violence which wounds or even kills

the assailant is justifiable when it falls within the

3 factors which determines the rightness or wrongness

of a concrete individual human act:

1. OBJECT it is what is actually pursued by the act

itself (e.g. to take possession of anothers property
is the object of stealing. To shorten the life of a
patient is the object of euthanasia). By their object,
acts can be good, evil or indifferent (are converted
to good or bad acts depending on the intention of
the subject or the circumstances that accompany
it.

3 factors which determines the rightness or wrongness

of a concrete individual human act:

2. END/MOTIVE the objective purpose of whoever

acts. It is the principal intention of the subject who
acts.
-

This can convert an act whose object is indifferent

into a good or bad act.
An act which is good in its object can become more
or less good or even bad.
A bad act can become worse or better, but never
good

3 factors which determines the rightness or wrongness

of a concrete individual human act:

3. CIRCUMSTANCES are those accidental aspects of

the object or of the intention of the subject that
affect in some way the goodness or malice of the
act without modifying its substance.
-

They cannot convert a good act into something bad

or vice-versa.

- They can increase or decrease the goodness or

malice of the act.

CONSIDER:
1. WHO refers to the doer and/or the receiver of the
act.
2. WHAT the act itself & the quality and quantity of
the results of the act.
3. WHERE the circumstances of the place where the
act is committed.
4. WITH WHOM the companion or accomplices in act
performed.
5. WHY the motive of the doer.

CONSIDER:
6. HOW the manner how the act is made possible.
7. WHEN the time of the act.
To steal is always evil. The sin is proportionate to
the amount stolen.
When facing death through starvation, the starving
individual may take surplus food from another in
order to avoid death. In case of extreme necessity
the ordinary right to private property no longer
holds.

CONSIDER:
In the case of unjust aggression, it is legitimate to
kill the aggressor who unjustly attacks and
attempts to kill another person.
To commit rape under the cover of darkness is even
worse that done in broad daylight.
To abuse a patient under sedation is much worse
than mere seduction.

An individual has the right to cut off,

mutilate, or remove any defective or
worn out non-functioning part of the
body; dispose of his organs or to
destroy their capacity to function.
only insofar as the general well-being of the whole
body requires it

Human life comes from God and no individual is the

master of his/her body.

Sexual union has a two-fold purpose:

1. The procreation and nurturing of children.
2. The expression of loving union and companionship.
NOTE: both purposes must be achieved only with the
conjugal bond.

Nonmarital sexual expressions

It occurs between two people who have no thoughts of
marrying each other; they have no long term
intentions regarding each other and no realistic
expectation that the relationship has a future.
It may occur in a sexual relations that are shared with
someone whom you enjoy and whom you have
been dating for several months or years
e.g. Sex with prostitutes; sex sought and occurs in a
series of casual affairs
This involves subjective guilt and sin

In contrast,
Premarital sexual expressions
It occurs in a relationship that is definitely directed
toward marriage but is not yet realized or capable
of being realized in a public marriage ceremony.
This relationship is found only in the lives of engaged
couples.
NOTE: the significant difference between casual
intercourse and the sexual relations shared by
engaged couples is the manner the moral act is
performed.

UTILITARIANISM is an ethical
theory on
usefulness.
An act is right (moral) if it is useful in
bringing about a desirable or good end.

Basic principle: the greatest good for the greatest

number.

The end of the act itself (i.e. fornication) by its nature

is disordered even if the person acting could be
intending a good end not absolute.

It holds that the moral status of an action of affairs is

relative
to the situation in which it occurs or is performed
i.e. Most people would say that whether or not it is
morally permissible to tell a lie is relative to the
situation in which the lie is told.
Lying is permissible in some situations and wrong in
other
situations.


GAUDIUM ET SPES
The Church in the Modern World

Universal Destination of Earthly Goods: God destined

the earth and all it contains for all men and all people
so that all created things would be shared fairly by all
mankind under the guidance of Justice tempered by
charity.

When a person is in extreme necessity he has the

right to supply himself with what he needs put of the
riches of others.

POPULORUM PROGRESSIO
The Development of Peoples

Private property does not constitute for anyone an

absolute and unconditioned right.

No one is justified in keeping for his exclusive use

what he does not need, when other lack the
necessities.


brain death an expression that
can refer to different physical
conditions.
The brain comprised of different
sections:
1.Brain stem controls involuntary bodily functions
such as respiration and heart rate.
2.Cerebrum controls the higher powers of the brain
such as creative thought and interaction with the
environment.


NOTE: patients may suffer injuries
to their cerebrum, but incur no
damage to their brain stems.
Determinants of a reliable criteria
by which to measure death (Harvard
Medical School): repeated after 24 hrs
1.Unreceptivity and unresponsitivity
2.No movements or breathing
3.No reflexes
4.Flat EEG (electroencephalogram) -measures and
records the electrical activity of the brain.


a person is legally dead (whole brain
death) - all parts of the brain have
ceased to function.
persistent vegetative state (PVS)
When the patients cerebrum has been
reparably damaged, but the brain stem
remain intact (cerebral brain death).
The patient will not regain consciousness but is able to
survive physically if given food and hydration through
a feeding tube.


... For some
Death is viewed in terms of the quality
Of life of the patient.
e.g. In cases of abortion
Requires: a healthy cerebrum. If the patient no longer
has the capacity to consciously relate with the
environment, then in the quality of life perspective,
the patient is as good as dead.


EUTHANASIA
(mercy killing, compassionate murder, assisted
suicide)
an action or omission which of itself or by intention
causes death in that all suffering mat\y in this way be
eliminated.

Both non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia as well

as voluntary euthanasia is immoral.


DYSTHANASIA
the medical process through which the moment of
death is postponed by all available means (through
the use of: extraordinary, burdensome means which
prolong the dying process or terminally comatose life,
by interrupting the biological process of death) often
without any real therapeutic benefit for the patient.


PRINCIPLE OF SANCTITY OF HUMAN DEATH

This principle advises that traditional medical ethics

counsels against over-treatment and allows that
treatment will be withheld and withdrawn for good
therapeutic reasons

ORTHOTHANASIA
it is death at ones appointed time and designated
hour.
It is allowed when:


1.When the treatment to prolong life is useless or
ineffective to the patient in terminal syndrome.
2. When the prolongation of life is excessively
burdensome for the patient or even to the family.
3. When the patient needs painkillers to directly
mitigate suffering and indirectly shorten life.


ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
(by the husband; by a donor)
the introduction of a third party into the act of
procreation violated the marriage vows.
In the case of a single woman, critics charge that is
unfair to bring a child into this world who has no
possibility of knowing his or her father and the
difficulty of the children being deprived of information
concerning their medical histories which may be
important later in their lives.


Ethical concerns have also been raised about the
activity of the donor: is it ethical to donate or sell
sperm that will be used to bring into the world a child
you will never know?

In one celebrated case, an inseminating physician

used his sperm to artificially inseminate his patients.
This raises the possibility of half brothers and sisters
unknowingly marrying one another at some later date.

The practice of surrogate motherhood in which a

woman is artificially inseminated and agrees upon
birth of the child to surrender the baby to the donor
and his wife.
On the ethical front, this entire process reduces
human life to a commodity to be manufactured and
purchased.
This could also lead to the exploitation of poorer
women. Such arrangements overlooked the emotional
bond formed by the woman to her baby during the
nine months of pregnancy.

TYPES
HOMOSEXUALITY sexual relationship
individuals of the same sex (homoerotism)

between

EXHIBITIONISM an persons obsessive-compulsive

inclination to obtain sexual gratification by public
exposure of the body or sex organs
TRANSVESTISM (for men) is sexually stimulated by
the clothing worn by women

TYPES
TRANSSEXUALISM does not only want to dress in the
clothing of the other sex but also wishes to have
his/her sex organ surgically changed
SADISM a form of sexual abnormality in which sexual
gratification depends largely on the infliction of pain
upon others
MASOCHISM sexual gratification depends largely on
undergoing physical pain or humiliation

TYPES
NECROPHILIA an abnormal, erotic attraction to
corpses
NECROSADISM the experience of sexual stimulation
or orgasm by mutilating corpses
SEX MURDER kills a person to enhance his/her own
arousal and sex gratification
PEDOPHILIA a male is obsessively-compulsively
attracted to boys

TYPES
FETISHISM an individual becomes sexually aroused
by the mere sight of a womans bra or panty, hair, a
shoe, a stocking, a blouse, girdle, legs, thighs, feet,
and the like
SEXUAL ATTACHMENT TO CHILDREN immediate
family members/ relatives
GERONTOPHILIA young girls/ boys become
compulsively infatuated with aged men/ women or
DOM/ DOW rather than of the same age

TYPES
MIXOSCOPIA OR VOYEURISM anyone who obsessively
derives sexual satisfaction from peeping, by looking at
sexual organs or acts, naked men/ women in nude
bars
PYGMALIONISM

individuals
are
obsessivelyexclusively attracted to and aroused by statues of
nude women/ men
BESTIALITY sexual intercourse between a human
being and an animal of a different specie


TYPES

ASEXUALS (THE FOURTH SEXUAL ORIENTATION)

- are people who define themselves as heteroromantic
-they feel romantic feelings towards the opposite
sex, though they feel no sexual attraction at all
(SEXUAL INDIFFERENCE), no sexual desire.
- homo-romantic, meaning they feel affection for
the same sex, and bi-romantic
- unlike celibacy, which is a choice, asexual is a


TYPES

-Asexual people have the same emotional needs as

everybody else and are just as capable of forming
intimate relationships.
HYPOACTIVE SEXUAL DESIRE DISORDER
(HSDD)
- A sexual dysfunction and is characterized as a lack or
absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual
activity, as judged by a clinician.


TYPES

-as a disorder: marked by distress or interpersonal

difficulties
-HSDD is listed under the Sexual and Gender Identity
Disorder