Natural Law: applied

Natural Law: applied

1. Abortion

   • Primary Precepts: preserve innocent live= inherently evil since intentionally directly killing and innocent being. Applied to all situations, inc rape and incest.
     • Then... when can a foetus be considered a person? is it the moment of contraception? or the appearance of certain features? ongoing debate.
   • Doctrine of double effect: permits the death of fetus, but ONLY as a by-product of another act, meaning that the intention was not to kill the fetus. E.g. hysterectomy to remove cancerous uterus= death of fetus, but that is not the INTENTION= it is acceptable. However if alternative medical treatment to save mother's life is available which would not harm the fetus then this must be chosen instead.

2. Euthanasia

   • Primary Precepts: preserve innocent life, obeying the sanctity of life (to hold all life sacred and holy). NL teaches human life is above and beyond that of animals and therefore should be protected. Taking another's life- even if they ask for it- is therefore morally unacceptable. Similarly, taking one's own life is equally as immoral.
   • Doctrine of double effect: ALTHOUGH administering drugs to end a life is unacceptable, could be morally acceptable to give a large dose of morphine to control the pain of a terminally ill patient EVEN IF it was foreseen that this would shorten the patient's life. The INTENTION was not to kill, but to bring pain relief= it is okay.

3. Genetic Engineering

   • Primary Precepts: preserve innocent life- embryo research goes against this. Then brings up the argument of when life begins- if an embryo is deemed to be human life then it would be immoral to experiment on it.
     • Living in an orderly society- GE goes against this since it is deemed as unnatural.

4. Just War

   • Primary Precepts: protecting innocent life- all criteria of a Just War (e.g. just cause, right intention and last resort) must be met in order for the use of force to be morally justifiable.
   • Doctrine of double effect: killing innocent lives by bombing. INTENTION is not to kill people but as an act of war=it is okay. However it would NOT be morally acceptable to break down the enemy's morale so they would lose.