Ethics and conscience. :Ethics and conscience. Principles of morality


Slide 2:1. Was the war in Iraq right, or were there other more ethical alternatives? 2. When is the human embryo considered a person: after the 14th week? or when is he /she born? / or from the moment of conception? 3. Can jihad be accepted or tolerated nowadays, or was it understandable in the past situation in its own context? Morality: of good and evil, of right and wrong


GOOD & EVIL :GOOD & EVIL Good end and purpose The final good moves beings Evil as privation / deordination Evil as such can never motivate Moral & physical evil Who causes evil? Different ends… The last end.


MORALITY :MORALITY Natural morality or Ethics -Use of our intelligence -Act of reason alone -For all mankind Supernatural morality, or Moral Theology -Use of the revelation provided by God -Act of faith and reason -For all believers


LAW :LAW Law is a normative social practice to guide human behavior, giving rise to reasons for action. It always contains an important educational element.


Difficult Case, 1 :Difficult Case, 1 Dr. Griffo, at Cornell. He stored embryos for a married woman who subsequently died. Before she died, she said she wanted her embryos destroyed, and her husband agreed, Griffo said. But now, he said, "her husband has changed his mind and says he wants someone to carry the embryos" so he can have his dead wife's babies.


Difficult Case, 2 :Difficult Case, 2 Ms. Garber and her father, Dr. Howard Garber, a retired optometrist, selected a sperm donor from a sperm bank to fertilize her eggs. She ended up with 12 embryos, which are stored in Anderson's tanks, but she died last December. Her parents are now deciding between two potential surrogates who have agreed to carry the embryos -- their grandchildren -- to term.


Difficult Case, 3 :Difficult Case, 3 A more typical situation, Dr. Sauer said, is that of a couple in their early 30s who had in vitro fertilization and completed their family. Now they have 10 embryos frozen at Columbia-Presbyterian, and they have not replied to letters asking them whether they want to keep the embryos or have them discarded. Sauer understands. Infertility is a devastating disorder that wreaks havoc on people's lives. The young couple "have a family now," Sauer said. "They don't want to be reminded of that period of their lives." So their embryos remain, frozen in perpetuity.


HUMAN EXPERIENCE :HUMAN EXPERIENCE Our intellect is naturally aware that our free acts are either good or evil. Everyone experiences a certain degree of satisfaction or remorse with regard to his acts. Ethics is that part of philosophy which studies the morality of human conduct, that is to say, which considers human activity inasmuch as it is good or evil.


Philosophical models of Ethics: Rival versions of morality :Philosophical models of Ethics: Rival versions of morality FOUNDATION OF ETHICS: A -in the nature of the human being (deontological model, teleological model) B -in consensus, in the opinion of the majority. No objective truth. Relativism.


Virtue ethics :Virtue ethics Utilitarian: consequences of doing so will maximise well-being: so, Mother Teresa is selfish. Virtue ethics: helping the person would be charitable or benevolent. Mother is a saint.


Natural Law model :Natural Law model Based on Metaphysics, on the concepts of being, truth, person, life, dignity of the human being. “DO WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSON” INTEGRAL GOOD: the convenient good for the nature of the person/


Slide 13:Key Concepts Person / Human Being Life Dignity of the Human Person Truth


Slide 14:Anthropology Human action 1/ Action performed 2/ Intention 3/ Circumstances


Slide 15:“Objective” Human Being Main Elements of Humanity: Rational Being Spiritual Soul Composite of body and Spirit Spiritual and Sensitive faculties etc. etc. etc. Virtues Ethics


CASE STUDY :CASE STUDY Imagine that each of five patients in a hospital will die without an organ transplant. The patient in Room 1 needs a heart, the patient in Room 2 needs a liver, the patient in Room 3 needs a kidney, and so on. The person in Room 6 is in the hospital for routine tests. Luckily (for them, not for him!), his tissue is compatible with the other five patients, and a specialist is available to transplant his organs into the other five. This operation would save their lives, while killing the "donor". There is no other way to save any of the other five patients.


CONSCIENCE :CONSCIENCE What is conscience? Where can we find it in our body? How to make sure that our conscience is right and reliable? Is conscience the voice of God?


CONSCIENCE :CONSCIENCE A Judgment of reason, recognizing the moral quality of a concrete act. Enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. Judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.


CONSCIENCE :CONSCIENCE Conscience is what motivates a person to take responsibility for the good and the evil he has done. Conscience:1. TRUE or right.2. ERRONEOUS or false: - invincible ignorance (no moral guilt) - vincible ignorance (no excuse from sin)


Conscience:degrees1. CERTAIN2. PROBABLE3. DOUBTFUL4. PERPLEXED-Always act with true and certain conscience.-Form your conscience :Conscience:degrees1. CERTAIN2. PROBABLE3. DOUBTFUL4. PERPLEXED-Always act with true and certain conscience.-Form your conscience


SIN :SIN Turning away from God Turning towards creatures (perverse attachment) Any utterance, deed, desire contrary to the eternal law.


VIRTUES :VIRTUES Repetition of good actions. Prayers Work Sacrifice With the help of the grace of God. Human virtues prepare for the supernatural ones.


VIRTUES :VIRTUES HUMAN VIRTUES Human virtues are firm and habitual disposition to do good. Four Cardinal virtues: Prudence/ Justice / Temperance / Fortitude. Human virtues perfect the intellect and will. They lead our actions. They are grouped around 4 cardinal virtues.


Prudence :Prudence To discern the true good, and to choose the right means of achieving it.


Fortitude :Fortitude Firmness in difficulties & constancy in the pursue of the good. To resist temptations & to overcome obstacles. To face trials, sicknesses, persecutions, etc. Sacrifice vs LAZINESS


Temperance :Temperance Moderates the attraction of pleasures, & provides balance in the use of created goods. Mastery over instincts.


Justice :Justice To give their due to God and neighbour Not to damage properties, and respect persons. Justice


Slide 29:NATURAL LAW Personhood Self-knowledge Self-possession Self-giving to form Communion Unique relationship with the Creator


CASE: Falling in Love :1. Experience of that powerful drive to share personal life with another person. 2. The deepest drive: to find personal self-fulfillment in mutual and total self-giving Also recognizes the difference and distance between: Falling in love ? Married Love Falling in love: ups and downs, and can disappear Married love: conscious decision that last a lifetime ?Premarital sex is always degrading to persons since the act does not express the total self-giving that should already exist and of which it (the sexual act) is its (total self-giving) expression CASE: Falling in Love Teenagers are in love. Can I have sex already?


Slide 31:NATURAL LAW Anthropology 1/ natural inclinations toward the good 2/ evil inclinations which arise from deviated passions 3/ intelligence, by which each person is able to discern the goodness or evilness of his actions 4/ inclination of the will toward the good


PROPERTIES OF NATURAL LAW :PROPERTIES OF NATURAL LAW universal : extending to all men, at all times, in all circumstances, and in regard to each and every act and immutable: since there is something which makes us human beings (what we call nature, or suppositum, substance)


PROPERTIES OF NATURAL LAW :PROPERTIES OF NATURAL LAW CONSEQUENCES:1. The prescriptions are not determined by what most people do but by what they ought to do, in keeping with God’s objective order. 2. Its force stems from the authority of the one who has made us.


PROPERTIES OF NATURAL LAW :PROPERTIES OF NATURAL LAW CONSEQUENCES:3. Historical, social, technological and other such changes do not affect the essence of the natural law. 4. No creature and no circumstance can change it or increase or diminish the obligation to follow it. Not only Christians but all men will be judged by God in accord with this law.


Substance of Natural law :Substance of Natural law The fundamental principle of the natural law is that good is to be done and evil avoided There are certain ways of acting in response to the basic human goods that are intrinsically flawed. We cannot come out with a code of millions of “situations-right choices” guide to follow. Object chosen / intention / circumstances


The Sources of Morality :The Sources of Morality Morality depends on three things: 1)the object chosen= what you do 2) intention 3)the circumstances of the action For example, to work under difficult external conditions is more meritorious. A task carried out to serve others or to give glory to God acquires a new dimension...


Substance of Natural law :Substance of Natural law In the final analysis, moral goodness consists in the order of spiritual creatures toward the final end which has to be achieved by its free operations. Union with God, through knowledge and will, confers moral goodness to man. A person is never allowed to perform a morally bad action. Nor may one ever positively will an evil effect of an action, even though the act would otherwise be lawful.


Principle OfDOUBLE EFFECT :Principle OfDOUBLE EFFECT An action from which two effects will follow, one bad, and the other good. CONDITIONS: 1. The act itself must be morally good or at least indifferent. 2. The agent may not positively will the bad effect but may merely permit it. 3. The good effect must be produced directly by the action, not by the bad effect. 4. That there be a proportionately grave reason for permitting the evil effect.


Principle OfDOUBLE EFFECT :Principle OfDOUBLE EFFECT CASE A pregnant woman bearing a nonviable fetus is found to have a cancerous womb that will cause her death if it is not excised as soon as possible… Is the operation of hysterectomy morally lawful? What about the sick pregnant woman with a kidney disease?


CASE :CASE A doctor who intends to hasten the death of a terminally ill patient by injecting a large dose of morphine would act impermissibly because he intends to bring about the patient's death. However, a doctor who intended to relieve the patient's pain with that same dose and merely foresaw the hastening of the patient's death would act permissibly.


CASE :CASE The principle disallows cases, however, in which a craniotomy (the crushing of the fetus's skull) is required to preserve a pregnant woman's life, on the grounds that here a genuine evil, the death of the fetus, is "directly" intended. "One should never do evil so that good may come."