‘Situation Ethics cannot solve the moral issue of “designer” babies.’

Question 1

‘The religious conscience offers the best guide to moral decision making.’ 15 marks

Answer 1

One view sees conscience as the innate voice of God. As a guide to moral decision making, God must be the best guide. This was the view of Augustine, who describes conscience as the innate voice of God giving perfect knowledge and guidance concerning God’s moral commands. However, this religious explanation does not explain why there is so much disagreement about the conscience, or why an all-powerful and all-loving God does not make moral guidance clear, or why so many people ignore it. A more developed explanation of the religious conscience sees it as God’s gift of reason. For example, Aquinas argued that reason works through the principle of Natural Moral Law, and the conscience uses this as a guide to understand what is right or wrong in any given situation. However, many reject the Natural Moral Law theory and suggest that sociological or psychological explanations of the conscience are the best guide to moral decision making. Some might argue that Situation Ethics offers the best guide to moral decision making. Fletcher argues that conscience is agape love making decisions situationally, and agape can be used as a religious principle. However, there is no guarantee that a religious understanding of love will be the same as a secular interpretation. Also, love might be seen as too narrow an understanding of conscience. For example, it is not clear what love demands when applied to issues of human life and death.