Unit 5 - Matters of Life

Morality
1. Absolute Morality
  1. When people have a principle and they will not differ from it
2. Relative Morality
  1. When people have a principle, but they may change it due to the situation
Why is Life Special?
1. Sanctity of life
  1. The concept that God created life, so life is special and should not be destroyed
2. Value of life
  1. How much a person is worth in financial terms
3. Quality of life
  1. Whether the person has a comfortable and pain free life
Fertility Treatment
1. IVF
  1. In Vitro Fertilisation
  2. A method of impregnation that doesn't involve sexual intercourse, where the sperm and egg meet outside the body and as then inserted into the womb
  3. Allows a couple to have a child that the would not have been able to have otherwise
  4. It isn't natural
  5. The unused fertilised eggs may be discarded, for some people this may be classed as murder
  6. Going against God's plan
    1. God may have given the technology and the power
2. AID
  1. Artificial Insemination by Donor
  2. When the sperm from an anonymous (until the child turns 18) donor is inserted into the vagina
  3. It allows a gay couple to have a child in a 'single-sex' home
    1. Which shouldn't even be a disadvantage because anybody who thinks gay people shouldn't have the same rights as straight people is stupid, homophobic and prejugisted
  4. The child might be disappointed when they find out that their 'dad' is not actually their real father
3. AIH
  1. Artificial Insemination by Husband
  2. When the sperm from the woman's husband is inserted into the vagina
  3. Generally allowed
  4. Catholics and Judaism see masturbation as 'spilling the seed'
4. Surragacy
  1. When another woman carries the child for a couple where the woman is infertile or has an unsuitable womb
  2. May be seen as adultery
  3. The surrogate mother could become attached to the child and not want to give it up
Transplant Surgery and Blood Transfusion
1. Transplants
  1. When organs from a brain dead donor are used to replace the organs of a patient that do not work properly
  2. Some people are against being donors because they don't want to be buried 'incomplete'
2. Blood Transfusions
  1. When a patient is given extra blood from a donor of the same blood type
  2. Jehovah's witnesses believe that the life is carried in the blood, so completely oppose blood transfusions
Genetic Engineering
1. Saviour siblings
  1. A saviour sibling is sibling born of a child who is very ill, specifically to provide stem cells for the ill sibling
  2. The sibling may feel like they are not loved and were only born to save the other child
2. Human Genetic
  1. 'Tampering with life'
  2. Embryology is the study of embryos
  3. Could lead to designer babies, where hair and eye colour, etc are chosen
  4. It is currently a way of ensuring that babies are no born with faulty genes, or genetic inherited diseases
  5. Playing God
Cloning
1. Therapeutic
  1. When embryos are created and used for experimentation but must be destroyed after 14 days
2. Reprodutive
  1. When an identical copy of an organism is produced
3. Cloned people don't have souls
  1. If someone is cloned and ginger, does it cancel out, do they get a soul?
4. God gave free will
5. Could help sick and infertile people
Experimentation
1. Hybrids
  1. When human DNA is injected into an egg from an animal (e.g. Cow)
2. Drugs
  1. Tested on simulation
    1. Tested for poison on rats or mice
      1. Cleared for human testing by ethical bodies
        Tested on healthy volunteers
        Tested on people with the relevant illness
        Tested against other drugs for side effects
3. Animal cruelty issues
Religious Views
1. Christian
  1. Disposing of embryos is murder
  2. Life begins at conception
  3. Cloning makes us, 'a product of technology, not a gift of life'
  4. "You shall not kill"
  5. "Love your neighbour as you love yourself"
2. Muslim
  1. The foetus does not receive it's soul until the 120th day of pregnancy
  2. "Do not take life which Allah has made sacred"
  3. Only allow blood transfusions in extreme cases
  4. IVF and AIH are allowed
  5. God gave us the technology
3. Buddhist
  1. Life begins before conception, because everyone is suspended in the Samsara cycle
  2. The deed is not important, but the intention of the deed
  3. Fertility treatment is the persons choice
  4. "Do not harm any living thing" the first precept

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Unit 5 - Matters of Life

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	Created by Lara Coffin over 10 years ago