Deontological approaches

Deontological ethics judges actions by duty and rule, not by results. Two foundations are studied:

• Christian Scriptures — the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) and the Sermon on the Mount, the nature of biblical ethics and the role of moral commands; and
• Natural Moral Law — its origins and historical development, its principles and key features, and proportionalism as a later modification.

Natural Law holds that reason can discern the natural purposes God built into human life, and that we should act in line with them.

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Teleological approaches: utilitarianism

Teleological ethics judges actions by their ends or consequences. Utilitarianism seeks the greatest good:

• Jeremy Bentham — the greatest happiness of the greatest number, measured by a 'hedonic calculus';
• J. S. Mill — refined this by distinguishing higher and lower pleasures; and
• Peter Singer — a modern preference utilitarian.

The specification also asks about Christian utilitarianism.

Situation ethics

Situation ethics, developed by Joseph Fletcher, holds that the one absolute is agape — self-giving love. In each situation you do 'the most loving thing'.

• its origins and development;
• the influence of the moral teaching of Jesus and Paul;
• its key principles and its understanding of the nature of love; and
• its relationship to utilitarianism (both are consequentialist, but situation ethics centres on love, not pleasure).

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Life and death: abortion

The specification applies these theories to abortion:

• the moral status, interests and rights of the unborn and of the woman;
• religious, secular and feminist views;
• the sanctity of life principle and the personhood debate;
• therapeutic abortion and the doctrine of double effect; and
• the slippery slope argument.

Which category?

Tap a term, then tap the group it belongs to in ethics.

Life and death: euthanasia

On euthanasia, candidates weigh:

• the types of euthanasia and the role of personal autonomy;
• the sanctity of life principle against the quality of life argument;
• the acts and omissions doctrine;
• the doctor–patient relationship and issues of trust; and
• the ethics of assisted dying and the slippery slope argument.

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Developments in bioethics

Finally, the unit examines assisted conception and new reproductive technologies:

• human infertility, IVF and surrogacy;
• the status of the embryo, personal rights and ownership;
• pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), embryo research and mitochondrial donation ('three-parent babies'); and
• the role of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Thinker and idea

Match each thinker or theory to its key idea.

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The big ideas to know

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