2. CLASSIFICATION OF ETHICS
RULE
Appeals to a set of criteria, norms or rules
Ten commandments
ACT
Weighing the consequences of the act itself.
Ex.
Utilitarianism
Situation ethics
3. TELEOLOGICAL-
Gk. Telos, teleos– end or purpose
Also consequential ethics
DEONTOLOGICAL
Gk. Deontos, deon ---duty
Also called duty ethics
Focus on the kind of act
4. ETHICAL RELATIVISM
There is no universal or absolute moral principle
Standards of right and wrong are always relative to a
particular society
Examples: Eskimos lending or allowing one’s wife to sleep with
a special guest
Igorots “olog” or trial marriage
Live-in among Americans
Muslims to have several wives
African culture to kill twins at birth
Jehovah’s witness refuses blood transfusion
5. SITUATION ETHICS
Joseph Fletcher
3 approaches to morality
1. Legalism- laws, norms
2. Antinomianism- by the decision of the person involve
3. Situationism
Moral norms depends on situations
3 types of love
1. Eros
2. Philia
3. Agape
Always act on Christian love (AGAPE)
6. 6 PROPOSITIONS OF SITUATIONISM
1. Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love:
nothing else
2. The ultimate norm of christian decisions is love:
nothing else
3. Love and justice are the same, for justice is love
distributed.
4. Love wills the neighbor’s good whether we like him or
not.
5. Only the end justifies the means: nothing else
6. Decisions ought to be made situationally, not
prescriptively.
7. PRAGMATISM
Charles Pierce and William James
True and valid form of knowledge:
Practical
Workable
Beneficial
Useful
8. Questions
Should the patient be told about the nature of
his/her seriouse illness?
Would it be more practical to withold the
information for the patient’s own good?
Would it be more humane and beneficial for a
grossly deformed fetus to be aborted than to suffer
and live a life of unbearable mistery?
9. UTILITARIANISM
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
Actions are good > promote happiness
Actions are bad > produce unhapiness
Example:
Vehicular accident and comatose patient
Principle of greatest happiness
An action is good/right insofar as it produces the
greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
10. Questions
a child born with spina bifida occulata, with open
spine, grossly deformed limbs and damaged brain.
Should we give the child ordinary treatment?
Should we give the child special medical assistance?
Should we just allow the child to die by giving no treatment at
all?
Should we put the child to death in a painless way.