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ETHICAL THEORIES

ETHICAL THEORIES. Dr Trevor Stammers Programme Director in Bioethics and Medical Law St. 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

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ETHICAL THEORIES

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  1. ETHICAL THEORIES Dr Trevor Stammers Programme Director in Bioethics and Medical Law St. Mary’s University College

  2. 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!

  3. Two Major Divisions • The law and professional guidelines • Ethical reflection

  4. 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.

  5. Two forms of Bioethics • Descriptive bioethics - the way people view life and their moral interactions and responsibilities • Prescriptiveor 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.

  6. Rise of bioethics

  7. Scope of Bioethics Taking Life abortion, euthanasia, infanticide Making Life cryopreservation, IVF, cloning Faking Life AI, cyborgs, transhumanism

  8. Father of medical ethics? • Thomas Percival 1740-1804

  9. Demise of Traditional Ethics • Paternalistic • Self-serving • Conservative • Individualistic • Professional • Monolithic • Pre-technological

  10. WHAT ARE THE FOUNDATIONS?

  11. Ethical Systems • Consequentialist • Deontological (duty based) • Faith-based • Principlism • Virtue ethics Incommensurability (Engelhardt)

  12. Virtue Ethics – What is the motive?

  13. Virtue Ethics – What is the motive?

  14. 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

  15. Virtue Ethics – What is the motive?

  16. What is the purpose (telos)of humanity? Eudaimonia Flourishing “Human happiness is the activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue” (arete) aristotelian purpose

  17. Virtue Ethics – What is the motive?

  18. ARISTOTLE – THE MASTER OF THEM THAT KNOW

  19. FAITH BASED

  20. FAITH BASED • Thomas Aquinas1225-1274

  21. 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.

  22. Three Steps of Natural Law Ethics • Examine nature – especially human nature – to discover the purpose of things built into nature. • Use reasoning to arrive at general principles of morality based on this examination of human nature. • Apply these general principles to the particular moral dilemmas to which we find ourselves.

  23. 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”)

  24. Advantages of DCT • Offers ‘answers’ to the metaphysical and epistemological puzzles • Makes claims objective • Offers a clear motivation for morality

  25. Objections to Moral Objectivity • The only reason you believe objective moral values exist is that you believe in God! Genetic fallacy : invalidating an argument by showing how it originated (e.g., the only reason you believe in democracy is that you were raised in a democratic society). The truth of a statement is independent of how the statement originated, or the motives of the person asserting it.

  26. The EuthyphroProblem “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”

  27. Basic dilemma Either something is good because God commands it or God commands it because it is good. Implication Right and wrong are arbitrary or Goodness is independent of God. Plato's Euthyphro Argument

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

  29. Craig Lane’s Argument 1.Objective values and duties require a Law Giver. 2. Objective values and duties do exist. 3. Therefore, God exists.

  30. “Plato the divine and the astounding Kant” Arthur Schopenhauer Immanuel Kant 1724-1804 the philosophers’ philosopher

  31. “They were incapable of inflaming the sparks within us for the study of philosophy or mathematics but could certainly blow them out” Immanuel Kant

  32. ‘The starry skies above…’ 1The 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)

  33. ‘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)

  34. 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’

  35. Consequentialist- What is the result?

  36. Rightness or wrongness determined purely by consequences Good = pleasure Bad = pain Utility i.e.usefulness in bringing about consequences Bentham’s Utilitarianism

  37. The rule of utility “That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers”

  38. Intensity Duration Certainty Propinquity (how long to wait) Fecundity Purity Extent (numbers of people) Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus

  39. “Everybody is to count for one, and nobody for more than one” Bentham’s Utilitarianism

  40. UTILITARIANISM – WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?

  41. The Rise of Bioethics 1978 Beauchamp and Childress The ‘bible’ of bioethics

  42. Principlism – The Georgetown Mantra • Autonomy • Beneficence • Non-maleficence • Justice

  43. ANTHROPOLOGY DETERMINES ETHICS • “What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention” Job 7v7

  44. Some Questions What 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?

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