P1 - Application of Ethical Theories

Question 1

What to consider when applying Aquinas’ Natural Moral Law to any issue

Answer 1

• which primary precepts affect the issue
• which secondary precept produced a ruling on the issue
• whether double-effect applies
• whether the situation requires an unusual response
• the view of the Catholic Church
• Reference to the virtues
• proportionalist’s response (value vs. intention)

Question 2

What to consider when applying Fletcher’s Situation Ethics to any issue

Answer 2

• what will work in a particular situation
• how love is affirmed by the action taken
• whether what you propose to do puts people before laws
• what end is aimed at: understanding nature and demands of agape
• what means we use to obtain that end
• what motives lie behind our act
• what the foreseeable conequences are
• how we then calculate love’s demands and act accordingly

Question 3

What to consider when applying Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics to any issue

Answer 3

• which virtues are to be taken account of/ developed in the same situation
• which vices are being demonstrated
• how the possible actions available will encourage good habits/ good character (for both individuals and society)
• Answer “What would virtuous people do?”
• What the motives are for the various courses of action that could be taken
• Whether there are factors in the situation that we cannot account for by using virtue theory

Question 4

What is the problem of the use of animals as food; intensive farming

Answer 4

Animals are being exploited in farms; in poor condition to provide food

Ethical issues:

• the moral right of humans to inflict such pain and suffering on other animals (who are socially and intellectually inferior)
• the issue of whether animals have a right to life
• the fact that the meat industry contributes to human starvation as (e.g.) cattle consume around 15x more grain than they can produce as meat

Question 5

Use of animals as food; intensive farming – Natural Moral Law

Answer 5

• If animals are for human use then NML justifies using animals for food and the farming procedures
• it is not uncommon in factory farming for individuals to bludgeon animals to death as a cheaper method of killing them, so to Aquinas this is not a moral issue
• the issue of whether animals have a right to life is not relevant to Aquinas’ system since animals are inferior to humans
• the whole approach is justified further by Aquinas’ appeal to the Bible

Question 6

Use of animals as food; intensive farming – Natural Moral Law, is there any substance to Aquinas’ view?

Answer 6

some may agree with Aquinas that animals are inferior to humans, but it is difficult to see a rational justification for Aquinas’ view.
Judith Barad – “An animal’s capacities have value independent of their usefulness to human beings”

Question 7

Use of animals as food; intensive farming – Virtue Ethics

Answer 7

Aristotle himself: probably would not have an ethical problem with eating meat, believed that animals existed for the sake of humans
Modern context: animals living in crowded and filthy conditions…
- this does not pass the virtue of compassion, if compassion is applied to animals

Question 8

Use of animals as food; intensive farming – Situation Ethics

Answer 8

it seems ‘natural’ for humans to use animals as food, however…

• intensive farming of animals means that ‘hunting animals for food’ changed to ‘exploiting animals for food’ since methods used are cruel, unjust and exploitive
• mechanisation of agriculture has also contributed to a huge poopulation increase globally

loving: putting people first as treating animals badly is better than starving children
not-loving: meat industry also contributes to human starvation (more crop yield with plants), new technology also allows growing meat in labs without animals

Question 9

What is the use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning

Answer 9

refers to using animals to develop drugs and medicines to treat human conditions and diseases; animal test subjects
(vaccines for HIV/AIDS from testing chickens, cats and monkeys)
Cloning: producing genetically identical copies of an animal; preserving endangered species, ‘improving’ animals to make them disease-resistant or to increase the meat or fur yield; mass production of animals for scientific research

Question 10

Ethical issues revolving around the use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning

Answer 10

• the moral right of humans to do research without consent on other animals who posess cognitive skills
• the fact that despite the commitment of many scientists to control animal pain, there are still many scientists who use no anaesthetics at all
• duplication of experiments in different countries: there is no co-ordination to lessen the impact on animals
• for cloning, one of the main concerns is where the technology might lead, e.g. with human-animal hybrids

Question 11

Use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning – Natural Moral Law

Answer 11

• if animals are inferior to humans, then this is not immoral, especially since it can develop cures for human diseases

“Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice, if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving human lives” - Catechism of the Catholic Church, influenced by Aquinas

• use of scientific procedures to cure human diseases would fulfil the primary precept to preserve (human) life
• pain inflicted on animals is accepted if necessary. If it wasn’t necessary then the human would be held to be cruel to hurt an innocent animal
• cloning: raises concern of producing hybrid animals or humans, this is condemned by Aquinas as each species was created by God to fulfil its purpose as that species

Question 12

Use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning –Situation Ethics

Answer 12

Fletcher advocated the use of animals in scientific procedures as the means to the end of human welfare, and as a pragmatic way of saving human lives through aiding to end human suffering

• surveys found that the most agapeic way of addressing human diseases may be to use animals for experiments and to try to limit their pain
• some may argue that it can never be loving to subject an animal to the kinds of tests that experimentation requires
• animal cloning: public opinion is generally not in favour, because of the effects on the animal itself and the uncertainty surrounding animal cloning

Question 13

Use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning – Virtue Ethics (Ethically OK)

Answer 13

• Aristotle himself used animals for scientific research, so he would regard such procedures as compatible with a virtuous character
• Aristotle’s highest thing in us is reason, our intelligence – we use our intelligence to do science, and using animals extends our intellect to the next level
• benefits of scientific research includes developing medicine and cures to diseases, animal cloning which has the potential to control diseases in animals which improves animal health

Question 14

Use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning – Virtue Ethics (not ethical)

Answer 14

• animal pain is not always properly controlled, mainly cause researchers sometimes don’t care about the suffering of the animals – this may lead researchers to be cruel (not virtuous)
• other virtue ethicists would reject that use of animals in scientific experiments is not compassionate at all – done without the consent of animals, no regulation to avoid this experiment from being done in other parts of the world

“The exercise of compassion and avoidance of a number of vices, involves focusing on the good of other animals as something worth pursuing, preserving, protecting and so on.” - Rosalind Hursthouse

Question 15

What are blood sports

Answer 15

a term commonly used to refer to sports that involve animal bloodshed; also to sports that involve the death of the animal
e.g. hunting, fishing, bull-fighting, etc.

Question 16

What are the ethical issues surrounding blood sports

Answer 16

• the moral right of humans to kill or maim for their own amusement, other animals who possess sentience, social organisation and cognitive skills
• the negative effect on human psychology, in so far as those who participante can become hardened (or desensitised) to animal suffering and can transfer it to their treatment of humans

Question 17

Blood sports – Situation Ethics

Answer 17

likely that most situation ethics would not put the interests of humans before those of animal species – if human pleasures are gained at the expense of animal suffering
there is arguably nothing agapeic about blood sports

Question 18

Blood sports – Virtue Ethics

Answer 18

• it would be difficult to find convincing arguments against blood sports in Aristotle’s writings
• in modern debate, hunting animals in public will upset and offend some people as is the case with fox-hunting where it was banned in England
• participation in blood sports may suggest a lack of consideration from humans for animals
• Some may say that experience pleasure at the expense of suffering of animals is not virtuous
• there are other sports a person can demonstrate reasoned courage: karate, cave diving, etc.

Question 19

Blood sports – Natural Moral Law

Answer 19

meets little to no objection from Aquinas’ natural moral law approach

• humans can use animals as they see fit, which includes blood sports
• the pain and suffering inflicted upon animals is acceptable as part of that use
• if the animal dies as a result then that is acceptable

Catholic groups have claimed that blood sports don’t align with Church’s ideas about the human responsibility for the ‘stewardship’ of creation

Question 20

What are animals as a source of organs for transplants

Answer 20

the technical term is ‘xenotransplantation’, the transfer of cells/ tissues/ organs from one species to another
e.g. the transplantation of human tumour cells into mice for research on tumours/ cancers
one aim is to use pic hearts that have been genetically engineered (preventing rejection and blood clotting) in order to give life-saving transplant for humans

Question 21

What are the ethical issues surrounding animals as a source of organs for transplants

Answer 21

• the moral right of humans to use (and thereby kill) animals who possess cognitive skills as sources of body parts for humans
• the risks of the various procedures, particularly the transfer of diseases and viruses from animals to humans
  e. g. human contact with chimpanzee blood can possibly transmit immune deficiency which mutated into HIV, now a global pandemic

Question 22

Animals as a source of organs for transplants – Natural Moral Law

Answer 22

• Humans have the moral right to use animals in any way they see fit
• however, any attempt to modify the human germine (e.g. inheriting material from eggs or sperm and is passed onto offspring) should be stopped
• despite the suffering animals face from this, it is accepted since the end is to serve human beings

Question 23

Animals as a source of organs for transplants – Situation ethics

Answer 23

depends on the situation and what the individual thinks about the status of animals
Situation wise: ‘all those in need of transplants for organs’ should be the ones helped
an agapeic calculus here needs to be future looking, since the technology does not yet exist in usable form

Some SE-ists would insist that donors should be dead or consenting humans, but this doesn’t solve the problem as there will never be sufficient human donor organs to meet the demands

most loving thing to do might be to pursue other technologies as they are developed

Question 24

Animals as a source of organs for transplants – virtue ethics

Answer 24

could be argued that virtues are exclusively about how we treat each other and not applied to animals
then you could argue that using animals as a source of organs is acceptable as it might be the most virtuous thing one might do in this particular situation