Understanding differences…

• There are three MAIN bases for ethics in Christianity:

– 1) BIBLICAL ETHICS. This sees the basis for ethics being what is
commanded by God in the Bible. PROBLEMS INCLUDE:
• Hermeneutics and Biblical criticism
• Modern issues such as IVF, genetic engineering, etc.
– 2) NATURAL LAW. Certain actions go against the common nature we
all share and are, therefore, ‘intrinsically evil’. PROBLEMS:
• Defining human nature
• Absolute rules are laid down which do not depend on context
– 3) A SITUATIONAL AND CONTEXTUAL APPROACH. This claims that
Jesus came to lay down two central commands: Love of God and
love of neighbour. What is right depends on context. PROBLEMS:
• This denies any absolute moral rules as everything is contextual
• All ethics become relative to ‘love’ and this is not easy to define.
The Sanctity of Human Life
 The Sanctity of Human Life
• These are important ideas in Christian ethics.
• This tradition is essentially deontological.
• Human life is said to be intrinsically valuable (the Latin
word ‘sanctus’ means ‘sacred’, ‘inviolable’, ‘holy’):
• 1. It is wrong intentionally to take an innocent human life.
• 2. All human lives are of equal value, irrespective of age or
condition.
• 3. In medical ethics, a moral distinction is made between
intentional killing, which is regarded as morally wrong, and
allowing a patient to die when further treatment is seen as
futile.
• These principles may be based on Biblical perspectives (for
example, the doctrine of Imago Dei – human beings as
created ‘in the image of God’). They may be based on
Natural Law.
• Why are these principles being challenged today?
PSALM 119:73

Your hands made me and formed

Genesis 1:27
me; give me understanding to learn
your commands.
27 So God created
Psalm 139:13-16 mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. created them; male and
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and female he created them.
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the
earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your
book
before one of them came to be.
NATURAL LAW

Aristotle, Aquinas and

The Catholic Tradition
 The Philosophy of Natural Law
• The Natural Law approach was developed by Thomas
Aquinas in the 13th century and became a central
feature of Catholic moral thinking.
• Aquinas was influenced by the philosophy of Aristotle
(4th century BCE)
• Aristotle argued that everything in the natural world has
a design and purpose – e.g., eyes are for seeing, wings
are for flying, legs are for walking …
• Aquinas argued that the reason for all this design and
purpose was that an intelligent designer (God) had
created the world
• Therefore, to understand something in the natural world
it is necessary to look at the purpose for which it has
been made
 Natural Law is a Deontological
Theory
• Natural Law is a deontological theory.
• An action is right or wrong in itself, regardless
of the circumstances or consequences.
 Primary Precepts
• Aquinas identified four specific goals:
• We are obliged to preserve our own lives
• We are obliged to procreate within marriage
• We are obliged to live as good citizens among
other people
• We are obliged to seek knowledge, primarily
about God and his creation.
• How do you think Aquinas arrived at these
principles?
 Primary Precepts
• Thus, Aquinas included among the primary principles of natural
law, not only the potentially entirely formal principle ‘Do good,
and avoid evil’, but also the natural human ‘inclinations’ to
self-preservation; to ‘sexual intercourse’ and to provide for
one’s ‘offspring’; and, as creatures possessed of ‘reason’, ‘to
know the truth about God, and to live in society’.
• In other words, the primary principles of natural law appear to
include such principles as: God should be worshipped, society
should be preserved, parents should take care of their children,
and so on. It is constitutive of the nature of human beings to do
these things, and whenever we fail to, for instance, preserve
society, worship God, take care of our children, we contradict
the very law of our nature, as well as the eternal law of God.
 Primary and Secondary Precepts
• In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas makes a distinction
between primary and secondary precepts of natural law.
• Secondary precepts are derived from primary precepts,
by a process of reasoning in which the general primary
precepts are made more detailed and specific.
• Primary precept: Marry and multiply
• Secondary precept: One should practise monogamy
• Primary precepts are always true; secondary precepts
may not hold in some circumstances.
• Primary precepts are self-evident; in working out
secondary precepts, it is possible to be mistaken.
Practical Example of Natural Law
(Deontological Reasoning) : Sex
• You might say that the natural purpose of sex is to fertilise
an egg, which in turn will be nurtured within a womb to
produce another human being. This process helps to
maintain the human species. Sexual attraction, arousal and
pleasure are therefore the means that nature has supplied
for achieving this particular end.
• So, for example, according to Natural Law,
Intercourse between members of the same sex is wrong
because it cannot result in conception.
Any attempt to frustrate the process of conception is
wrong, because it tries to separate off the sexual act from
its natural purpose. In traditional Catholic teaching it is
therefore wrong to practice contraception.
 Some Examples
From what you have learnt so far, how do you
think natural law would approach the
following issues:
1. Euthanasia
2. Abortion
3. Artificial birth control
4. ‘In vitro’ fertilisation
 Pope Paul VI:
Humanae Vitae (1968)
‘The Church … in urging
men to the observance
of the precepts of the
natural law … teaches
as absolutely required
that any use
whatsoever of marriage
must retain its natural
potential to procreate
human life’
Abortion
• The Natural Law view is that
human life begins when the
woman’s egg is fertilised by a
male sperm.
• From that moment a unique life
begins, independent of the life of
the mother and father. The
features that distinguish us from
our parents - the colour of our
eyes, the shape of our face - are
all laid down in the genetic code
that comes into existence then.
• Each new life that begins at this
point is not a potential human
being but a human being with
potential.
 Natural Law and Abortion
• From the moment of conception the
conceptus has the ‘purpose’ of becoming a
person. Abortion frustrates the purpose of the
embryo and is therefore always wrong.
 Abortion
• “The direct interruption of the generative
process, already begun, and above all directly
willed and procured abortion, even if for
therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely
excluded as licit means of regulating birth”
(Papal Encyclical - Humanae Vitae)
 Pope Benedict (2007)
“regarding fundamental values such as respect
for human life, its defence from conception to
natural death … These values are not
negotiable”
 The Roman Catholic Church
• Within Christianity, a diversity of teaching on the morality
of abortion has emerged.
• The Roman Catholic church teaches that life must be
safeguarded with the utmost care from the moment of
conception: abortion and infanticide are seen as
abominable crimes.
• Drawing on modern genetic science the RC church argues
that from the moment of fertilisation there is established
the program of what this living being will be: a person.
• Although not formally teaching that there is a full human
life present from the moment of conception, the Church,
owing to the ‘risk of murder’, rules out all abortions
regardless of the stage of fetal development.
 The Principle of Double Effect
However, a believer in natural law may justify the
following actions: A doctor may remove the uterus or
fallopian tubes of a pregnant woman, knowing the
procedure will cause the death of the embryo or foetus,
in cases in which the woman is certain to die without the
procedure (examples cited include aggressive uterine
cancer or ectopic pregnancy). In these cases, the
intended effect is to save the woman's life, not to
terminate the pregnancy, and the effect of not
performing the procedure would result in the greater
evil of the death of both the mother and the unborn
child.
 EUTHANASIA

Euthanasia - “A good death” – from the Greek “eu” meaning good, and “thanatos”
meaning death.
Euthanasia is related to suicide because people choose how and when a human life
should end, either their own or someone else who is unable to make the choice.

Difference between euthanasia and suicide: Euthanasia involves more than 1

person. Someone else is needed to perform the killing, provide drugs, or withhold
life-saving treatment because someone is unable to commit suicide on their own.

Voluntary Euthanasia: “Assisted suicide”: Someone chooses to end their life but
needs help to commit suicide.

Involuntary euthanasia - Other people decide it is best if someone‛s life ends,

because s/he can not make that decision. E.g. they have been in a coma for a very
long time.
Active euthanasia - Action is taken to bring a life to an end, e.g. a lethal dose of
drugs is given.
Passive euthanasia - Decision is made to stop giving treatment, even though death
will result. This happens often in hospitals. Many do not accept this as euthanasia,
because all you‛re doing is letting nature take its course.
 Euthanasia raises some awkward questions for Christians...
Is euthanasia sinful, or merciful and loving?
If God decides whether we live or die, are we “playing God” just as
much by healing people as by
quickening their deaths?
Other Christians are against euthanasia. They argue it is dangerous
to make euthanasia legal.

1. “Thou shall not kill”. It is wrong to take away God‛s sacred gift of human life.
2. “God made man in his own image” Genesis 1:27 – human life is a sacred gift
from God.
3. “God gives and God takes away” Job 1:21, not us!
4. “Don‛t you know that you are the temple of God?” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
5. Jesus healed the sick and dying, he did not kill them. Christians have a duty to
help others who
are suffering, not kill them.
6. Humans have a responsibility to use God‛s gifts to the full, not end it! Suicide
denies our
responsibilities to our neighbours, society, family, etc..
7. Everyone is created by God and offered salvation through Christ – killing is
always wrong.
8. Killing a life opposes God‛s love for that person.
 The Principle of Double Effect
• The principle of double effect makes a distinction between
deaths that are directly intended and deaths that are merely
foreseen.

• It is not permissible for a doctor to administer a large dose of

morphine with the intention of hastening death.
• It is permissible for a doctor to administer a large dose of
morphine with the intention of relieving pain (if that is the
only way to relieve pain), even if they foresee the hastening of
the patient’s death.

• If safer drugs were available, they would be used: pain would

be controlled and life would not be shortened.
 Natural Law

Natural Law theology has led to strong sanctity of life responses from the Catholic church. Natural
Law deals in moral absolutes –precepts that cannot be broken regardless of the situation, The end
never justifies the means, so no amount of suffering can justify an 'evil act' (Do good, avoid evil).

A key value is to 'protect and preserve the innocent'. It is therefore an absolute moral rule that you
should never kill an innocent person. It would seem that euthanasia is always wrong. You couldn't
argue for assisted suicide, as the same principle would outlaw killing oneself even if you could justify
helping someone to die , which is unlikely.
However, we mustn't forget the principle of double effect. It is wrong to kill, but is it wrong to give
someone pain relief if a secondary effect is that they die? Once you accept that death is merely a by-
product of another action, you are asking a very different question. You are asking 'Is death a
proportionate outcome?' This brings in a utilitarian type of consideration, which we would not expect
from Natural Law!
In other words, while Natural Law clearly doesn't support active euthanasia, it may well allow an
action whose intention is merely to relieve pain, even if the action leads to death. There are natural law
thinkers who find the doctrine of double effect difficult to reconcile with Natural Law thinking.
 The Roman Catholic Church

1. Totally against euthanasia. Any act which deliberately brings about death is the
same as murder.

2. Does accept using pain killing drugs which are meant to relieve pain, but may
shorten someone‛s life.

3. “Ordinary” treatments, e.g. feeding a patient must always continue, but

“Extraordinary” treatments such as a complicated operation that is unlikely to
succeed need not be given. Euthanasia is always wrong, but it is also wrong to keep a
patient alive at any cost. People should be allowed to die, but only when nature, or
God, decides.

Quotable quote:
‘Euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God‛ Pope John Paul II, 1995
 Pope Francis (2017)
“In reality, in the light of faith and of right
reason, human life is always sacred and always
‘of quality’,”
 Hospice Movement The strongest argument against euthanasia.
Hospices help people to die with dignity. The aim of the Hospice Movement
Care and support for patients, relatives and friends at the most difficult stage in their lives.

1. Relieve pain – whether caused by the illness or by the stress and fear it creates. Hospices specialise in
pain control and lead the way in palliative medicine (pain control by drugs). They say all pain, no
matter how severe, can be brought under control.

2. Enable patients, families and friends to face up to death by allowing them to talk in a free and open way.
This is one of the main facilities offered by Hospices.

3. Care for the emotional needs of relatives – before, during and after the patient‛s death. In most hospitals,
the needs relatives are largely ignored. Hospices seeks to fulfill those needs.