Relation between ethics and religion
Review the following ethical dilemmas:
1. John Doe has decided to clone himself. He is sterile. He cannot find anyone to marry him. He wishes to have children. He knows that he will not be able to love a child that is adopted or not connected directly to him biologically. He will be making use of a new procedure that involves taking his skin cells to produce a twin. The twin starts out as an embryo and grows into a child. The child in this case will have the same genetic information as John Doe. John Doe and his child will be twins.
2. Jane Doe is eighteen. For as long as she can remember she has been sexually attracted to other females. Her parents belong to a religion that has a religious text stating that God forbids one to be a lesbian. This religion goes on further to say that lesbians will be punished in the afterlife. Jane Doe is debating whether she should tell her parents about her sexual attraction. She has not yet decided if she should come out to her parents and live as a lesbian now that she is a legal adult.
3. Joe and Mary are a couple. Before becoming sterile, they had a child. This child died of a rare disease. Joe and Mary miss their child terribly. They have heard that there is a new IVF procedure that can ensure that they can have another child. However, their religion
Use the resources assigned for this week and additional research,
Instructions
Select two of the situations above and then address 2 of the following:
1. What is the relation between ethics and religion? Formulate and investigate the relation.
2. For each case, determine the ethical path of conduct. Then, determine what paths of conduct would be unethical
3. For each case, what would an emotivism say to appraise what you determine is the ethical form of conduct?
4. For each case, would a natural law ethicist agree with what you say is the ethical form of conduct? Why or why not?
5. Articulate, explain, and evaluate in each case an approach that makes use of divine command ethics.
Sample Solution
There is a spectrum of views about how religion and ethics are related – from the view that religion is the absolute bedrock of ethics to one that holds that ethics is based on humanistic assumptions justified mainly, and sometimes only, by appeals to reason. These two extremes tend to be argued in a way that offers little room for compromise or pragmatic solutions to real issues we face every day. The relationship between religion and ethics is about the relationship between revelation and reason. Religious thinkers have spoken to a larger society on moral issues. A focus on faith rather than reason can prevent us from presenting the most persuasive ethical argument.
