ETHICAL THEORIESDr Trevor StammersProgramme Director in Bioethics and Medical LawSt. Mary’s University College

WHAT IS ‘ETHICS’?

Ethics is ‘the study and justification of conduct’. (Fraenkel 1977)

Morality is the reflective consideration of what is right and wrong

Values – beware of them!

TWO MAJOR DIVISIONS The law and

professional guidelines

Ethical reflection

A DEFINITION OF BIOETHICS

Bioethics is the philosophical study of the ethical controversies brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, philosophy, and theology.

TWO FORMS OF BIOETHICSDescriptive bioethics - the way

people view life and their moral interactions and responsibilities

Prescriptive or normative bioethics – establishing what is right or wrong on the basis what principles are most important; establishing that someone has rights and therefore others have duties to them.

RISE OF BIOETHICS

SCOPE OF BIOETHICS

Taking Lifeabortion, euthanasia, infanticide

Making Lifecryopreservation, IVF, cloningFaking LifeAI, cyborgs, transhumanism

FATHER OF MEDICAL ETHICS?

Thomas Percival 1740-1804

DEMISE OF TRADITIONAL ETHICS PaternalisticSelf-serving ConservativeIndividualistic ProfessionalMonolithicPre-technological

WHAT ARE THE FOUNDATIONS?

ETHICAL SYSTEMS ConsequentialistDeontological (duty based)Faith-basedPrinciplism Virtue ethics

Incommensurability (Engelhardt)

VIRTUE ETHICS – WHAT IS THE MOTIVE?

VIRTUE ETHICS – WHAT IS THE MOTIVE?

PLATO

427-347 BC“All of Western philosophy is but a footnote to Plato. His shadow falls over all of Western thought.”

A.N. Whitehead

VIRTUE ETHICS – WHAT IS THE MOTIVE?

ARISTOTELIAN PURPOSE What is the purpose

(telos)of humanity?

Eudaimonia Flourishing

“Human happiness is the activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue” (arete)

VIRTUE ETHICS – WHAT IS THE MOTIVE?

ARISTOTLE – THE MASTER OF THEM THAT KNOW

FAITH BASED

FAITH BASEDThomas Aquinas1225-1274

NATURAL LAW For the most part, Christianity has

emphasized Natural Law ethics Moral truths are built on general moral principles

reflecting our shared human nature Moral teachings are “laws” that are more

fundamental than specific laws This law is not external to the human person.

It is “engraved in our hearts”It identifies what it means to be human.

THREE STEPS OF NATURAL LAW ETHICS

1. Examine nature – especially human nature – to discover the purpose of things built into nature.

2. Use reasoning to arrive at general principles of morality based on this examination of human nature.

3. Apply these general principles to the particular moral dilemmas to which we find ourselves.

DIVINE COMMAND THEORY (DCT) The Theory: “x is morally wrong” means “God disapproves of x” (or “God forbids x”). “x is morally right” means “God approves of x” (or “God commands x”)

ADVANTAGES OF DCT

Offers ‘answers’ to the metaphysical and epistemological puzzles

Makes claims objectiveOffers a clear motivation for morality

OBJECTIONS TO MORAL OBJECTIVITYThe only reason you believe objective moralvalues exist is that you believe in God!

Genetic fallacy : invalidating an argument byshowing how it originated (e.g., the onlyreason you believe in democracy is that youwere raised in a democratic society).

The truth of a statement is independent ofhow the statement originated, or the motivesof the person asserting it.

THE EUTHYPHRO PROBLEM “The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy or holy because it is beloved of the gods”

PLATO'S EUTHYPHRO ARGUMENT

Basic dilemma Either something is

goodbecause God

commands it or God commands itbecause it is good.

Implication

Right and wrong arearbitraryorGoodness is

independentof God.

CRAIG LANE’S ARGUMENT

God himself is the Good.God's commandments are not arbitrary, but necessarily flow from his own nature

CRAIG LANE’S ARGUMENT

1.Objective values and duties require a Law Giver.

2. Objective values and duties do exist.

3. Therefore, God exists.

IMMANUEL KANT 1724-1804 THE PHILOSOPHERS’ PHILOSOPHER

“Plato the divine and

the astounding Kant”

Arthur Schopenhauer

IMMANUEL KANT “They were incapable of

inflaming the sparks within us for the study of philosophy or mathematics but could certainly blow them out”

‘THE STARRY SKIES ABOVE…’1 The heavens declare the glory of

God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

    2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they display knowledge.

    3 There is no speech or language     where their voice is not heard.     4 Their voice goes out into all the

earth,     their words to the ends of the

world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

‘THE MORAL LAW WITHIN ME…’7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.     The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.     8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.     The commands of the LORD are radiant,     giving light to the eyes.

    9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.     The ordinances of the LORD are sure     and altogether righteous.

(Psalm 19:7-9)

DEONTOLOGICAL – WHAT IS THE RULE?The Categorial

Imperative‘Act on that

maxim whereby thou canst at

the same time will that it

should become a universal law’

CONSEQUENTIALIST- WHAT IS THE RESULT?

BENTHAM’S UTILITARIANISM Rightness or

wrongness determined purely by consequences

Good = pleasure Bad = pain Utility i.e.usefulness

in bringing about consequences

THE RULE OF UTILITY

“That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers”

BENTHAM’S HEDONIC CALCULUS

IntensityDurationCertaintyPropinquity (how long to wait)FecundityPurityExtent (numbers of people)

BENTHAM’S UTILITARIANISM

“Everybody is to count for one, and nobody for more than one”

UTILITARIANISM – WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

THE RISE OF BIOETHICS1978

Beauchamp and Childress

The ‘bible’ of bioethics

PRINCIPLISM – THE GEORGETOWN MANTRA

AutonomyBeneficence

Non-maleficence

Justice

ANTHROPOLOGY DETERMINES ETHICS “What is man that

you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention”

Job 7v7

SOME QUESTIONSWhat scriptural principles and/or texts

support or undermine deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics?

Which, if any of these three schools of ethical thought is the most consistent with scripture and why?

Why has principlism become so popular as a system of ‘doing ethics’?

What problems can you see using the 4 principlist principles in evaluating ethical issues?