Best Ways of Making Moral Decisions: Your Opinion?

1. Do Now Which of the four ways of making moral decisions do you think is the best?

2. ActivationThe following passage contains 5 factual errors. See if you can work out what they are. The abortion act was passed in 1969. According to the act any woman in the UK can have an abortion if 3 doctors agree that she has a good reason. They can give one of three reasons. The woman must have the abortion before 28 weeks. Nowadays there are a lot of abortions.

3. Answers The abortion act was passed in 1967. According to the act any woman in Britain can have an abortion if 2 doctors agree that she has a good reason. They can give one of four reasons. The woman must have the abortion before 24 weeks. Nowadays there are a lot of abortions.

4. ActivationSo when doctors allow an abortion they have to give a reason. They have 4 reasons to choose from. What do you think the 4 reasons are?

5. Answers 1 The mother’s life is at risk.2 There is a risk of mental or physical harm to the mother.3 The mother already has children and she cannot afford another one.4 The baby would be born very badly handicapped.

6. Sanctity of Life All Christians believe in the Sanctity of Life which means that they believe that human life is sacred or holy

7. Why do Christians say that life is sacred? Firstly because it belongs to God and so it is up to God when to take it

8. Sanctity of Life Secondly one of the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 says “thou shalt not kill”

9. Sanctity of Life Thirdly 1 Corinthians 6 says “your body is a temple of the holy spirit”

10. If all Christians follow the 10 Commandments why do some Christians allow abortion? • There are different views on when life start. Roman Catholics say that life starts at conception and so taking life is always wrong • Some Christians say that life does not start until birth. They look at the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis which says that after God made Adam, he breathed into him and he started to live. So some Christians say life does not start until a person breathes for themselves • Other Christians say that life starts somewhere in between such as when the foetus starts to move. This is called the quickening

11. ActivationUsing a post it note try to give one reason for the following question. Explain why some Christians agree with abortion

12. Activation We are going to revise what Thomas Aquinas taught about the law of double effect but first discuss for 2 minutes if you can recall what he taught about the creation of the world

13. To remember the law of double effect we shall tell a little story. One Christmas evening Santa Claus is out delivering his presents.

15. It is so slippery that he has an accident and falls off his ladder

16. Whaa

17. His reindeer call for an ambulance and take him to hospital

19. But they forget his bag which is left lying on the ground

21. A Little Man Finds the sack of toys and decides to leave it in the lost property office

22. The First effect is that the bag is safe

23. The Second effect is that some children do not get their presents

24. Would God be pleased with the little man and why?

25. AnswerYes God would be pleased with the little man because he had good intentions.

26. The Law of Double Effect and Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas (1224 – 1274) said that sometimes an action has 2 effects one of which is good and one of which is bad. If our main intention is to do good but our actions also produce some bad result we may still be morally justified in doing this. He called this idea the law of double effect. Most religious people agree that the most important thing when making moral judgments is our intentions. If we intend to do something good but as a side effect something bad happens we are not held morally responsible for this. This means for example that it might be ok to fight in a war even though you might hurt others as your intention is good.

27. With the person beside you try to think of your own example of when you could use the law of double effect3 minutes