1. (ON ABORTION) EXPLAIN THE ETHICAL TEACHINGS OF THE RELIGION YOU HAVE STUDIED

2. INTRODUCTION The ethical teachings of Christianity can encompass a very broad spectrum of different views and attitudes to modern-day practical ethics. Abortion can be discussed from a range of different religious ethics standpoints – divine command theory, situation ethics, the teachings of Jesus, fundamentalist Biblical adherence and the various interpretations of the Christian conscience. Purple = Should abortion follow a deontological or teleological approach? Red = Can one make laws about abortion? Green = Are the mother’s rights to bodily autonomy more important than the foetal right to life? Blue = Should we make ethical decisions using reason or by listening to God’s voice?

3. DIVINE COMMAND THEORY Divine command theory asserts that actions are “good” and “bad” by virtue of being commanded or forbidden by God in the Bible. For a follower of divine command theory, actions do not possess any moral status in their own right – for example, stealing is not intrinsically wrong, it is wrong because God specifically forbade it in the Ten Commandments. Divine command theory emphasises the omnibenevolence of God, and implies that we should follow his ethical commands, because he knows what is best for us. For a divine command theorist, abortion is a wrong action. An implicit divine command about the morality of abortion can be inferred from Exodus 21:22 – 24. This scripture is about a woman who has a miscarriage that was caused because two men were fighting. The scripture does not state that she had an abortion, but it implies that causing a miscarriage should be punished, because a life was lost: the foetus has a right to life just as the mother does. It can also be inferred from Isaiah 44:2 that God creates life with a prior plan in the womb: God tells Jacob in this passage not to feel any fear, as it was “the LORD who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you”. This implies that foetuses are part of God’s plan just as human beings are. In Matthew 19:6, it is stated that “what therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder”. Therefore, it is morally incorrect to perform or have an abortion for divine command theorists, as foetuses are created by God and should not be killed by human action.

4. LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY Divine command theorists promote a fundamentalist view of the Bible, in that they believe it is the direct word of God which should be obeyed without question, just as evangelicals do. However, many Christians take a more liberal view of Biblical teachings. Liberal Christians generally believe that while the Bible is an important guideline for Christian life – for instance, they will follow the Ten Commandments to the best of their ability – there are parts of scripture which are no longer relevant to modern life, or are open to interpretation based on the Christian’s own moral system. In relation to abortion, it is asserted in Isaiah 44:2 that God creates life in the womb, but the termination of a pregnancy is never outlawed in strict terms like the Ten Commandments outlaw murder. Some take it further and argue that because in Exodus 21:22 – 25, causing a miscarriage is punishable by a fine, but injuring a pregnant woman in any other way should be punished “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth”, the mother’s rights are explicitly more important that those of the foetus. Also, due to translation issues, some may argue that it is impossible to truly know today what God wanted for the Jews of the Old Testament, whether a foetus has a human life and whether it is sacred. Therefore, they believe that ethical issues should be approached with a view to following Jesus’s guidelines for life instead of strict rules, such as “love thy neighbour” and “do unto others as you would have done unto you”. Depending on circumstance, this may or may not allow a woman to have a termination, but for a liberal Christian there are no definite rules applying to abortion.

5. SITUATION ETHICS Situation ethics is a Christian ethical theory that is similar to liberal Christianity. Developed by Joseph Fletcher in 1963, the theory asserts that that there are no absolute laws other than the law of unconditional agape love, and that all other laws are laid down in order to achieve the greatest amount of this love. To do this, moral decisions should follow four working principles – pragmatism, that the course of action must be practical and must work; relativism, that all situations are relative and words such as “never” and “always” should be avoided; positivism, that the people involved should freely believe in agape love, and personalism, that laws should be for the benefit of the people. Fletcher does not argue that abortion is moral itself, unlike liberal Christians: he believes that Biblical teachings on killing and the sanctity of life are valid, but that like all principles, they can be cast aside in a situation where agape love would be better served by following different rules. Abortion is not necessarily bad for a situation ethicist. An abortion is morally right or wrong depending on the amount of agape love with results from and motivates it. For example, it may be morally right if the pregnant woman would suffer greatly from not having an abortion, but it may be morally wrong if the woman was solely concerned about her career prospects. For Fletcher, it is hard to make laws concerning abortion. However, any law that led to the greatest amount of agape love, and followed the four working principles, would be the best to make – and any decisions about abortion should do the same.

6. THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE Roman Catholics believe that the human conscience is not the voice of God, but that it is also not solely from our societal upbringing. They believe that conscience is an act of the mind using “right reason”, which defines the “real good” on which actions should be based; this is stated in the Catechism, with “deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey”. In terms of abortion, Roman Catholics would say that if the woman getting an abortion has any doubts, it will be her conscience trying to direct her into acting on right reason – the “real good” in this situation is for her not to have an abortion. Evangelical Protestants, however, take a slightly different view – they believe that conscience is literally the voice of God, which directs people towards what is correct. In terms of abortion, this would be not to have an abortion (although there are problems with this – religious revelations believed to be from God may well tell a woman to contravene Christian teaching and have an abortion, which is problematic, as it goes against Evangelical Christian teachings).

7. WHICH THEORY IS THE BEST? Each theory can be criticised in relation to abortion. Divine command theory is very rigid and may endanger the lives of both the foetus and the mother, which may be seen as morally objectionable; liberal Christians have no concrete view on abortion, and much depends on unreliable translations of a very old set of guidelines; in situation ethics, it is debated as to whether the freedom to choose actions is too challenging, and whose agape should be included in making a decision about abortion (for instance, whether the agape of the father and the foetus should be considered – and who measures it?); and when relying on conscience, what is believed to be religious revelation may not actually be in harmony with religious teachings. These criticisms derive from the issues of lawmaking on abortion and whether maternal rights are more important than foetal ones. For instance, it would be very difficult to make laws relating to abortion in a liberal Christian society, as they have no real teachings on the issue, and it is hard to decide whether the foetus has rights in situation ethics, as it may well not have the capacity or ability to be affected by agape love.

8. STRENGTHS Divine command theory: deontological, so is clear; applies to everyone; universalisable; therefore, compassionate. Liberal Christianity: compassionate. Old Testament: emphasises sanctity of life. Situation ethics: flexible; compassionate; teleological; prioritises human beings. Conscience: God’s voice is a higher authority; reason is rational and logical.