scholarly journals Moral Theological Analysis of Direct versus Indirect Abortion

2017 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 248-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Haas
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Double Effect ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Principle Of Double Effect ◽  
Mother And Child

Cases of a vital conflict, where the lives of both the mother and child are at risk during pregnancy, have been the subject of recent vigorous debate. The basic principles put forth in the Ethical and Religious Directives are reviewed, as is the principle of double effect. An illustrative case of severe cardiomyopathy in a pregnant woman is described and it is noted that the principle of double effect would not apply. Counter arguments are noted, focusing on Martin Rhonheimer who posits that in the case of vital conflicts, such as performing a craniotomy on a baby stuck in the birth canal, taking the baby's life does not constitute a direct abortion because moral norms do not apply in the extreme conflict situation where both mother and child will die. He states that the death of the fetus is not intentional in these cases. He overlooks “how the life is being saved” and that a choice has been made, which implies a moral act, not just a physical one. Rhonheimer wants to make his moral judgment solely on the basis of intention, prescinding from what actually occurs in the physical world of cause and effect. This is clearly against the teaching in Evangelium vitae. Ethics deal with the deliberate chosen actions in space and time of embodied human beings; it deals inescapably with material actions, with specifications of intentions. Rhonheimer states, “a killing or an abortion is ‘direct,’ not because the death of the fetus is caused in some physically direct way, but because it is willed as the means to an end.” However the death of the child cannot be excluded from the act and is therefore of necessity included in it. What the acting person chooses includes what happens physically in this act. If the action theory proposed by Rhonheimer is accepted, it could be very difficult to avoid death-dealing actions from taking place in Catholic hospitals. Summary This is a moral analysis of cases of “vital conflicts,” where the lives of both the mother and child are at risk during a pregnancy. It is stated by some ethicists that directly killing the baby to save the life of the mother is morally justified, even when the direct action of the doctor is to kill the baby. Examples are provided to illustrate how Catholic moral principles apply. It is concluded that direct killing, regardless of the intention, is not justified. The doctor should always work to try and save the lives of both the mother and the child. One should never be directly killed even if the intention is to save the life of the other.

Killing and the Principle of Double Effect

1988 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Van Den Beld
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Double Effect ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Principle Of Double Effect

When we raise the question of whether the pleasures of the human body are as valuable as those of the human mind — whether, for example, pushpin is as good as poetry — it is quite possible that people will disagree on their answers. But we would also expect most people to agree with the assertion that the death of a human being would generally be a bad thing; whilst his continuing to live would be a good thing. Furthermore, we would expect most people to concede immediately that the death of five human beings is a worse evil than the death of one single individual: all other things being equal, I hasten to add. It seems to follow now, on the basis of this commonly held view, that saving the lives of five people, who would be doomed to a certain death without an intervention on the part of another, would be morally right, if not praiseworthy, even if the action which is necessary to save those five lives would also entail the death of another person. To liven up the proceedings, if you will pardon the expression in this context, let me put to you this specific case:organs distributed. In that case, there would be one dead but five saved.’

“Utopia First!” A Machiavellian Conception of Solidarity in More's Utopia

Moreana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (Number 209) (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Phélippeau
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Difficulties ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
Communal Organization

This paper shows how solidarity is one of the founding principles in Thomas More's Utopia (1516). In the fictional republic of Utopia described in Book II, solidarity has a political and a moral function. The principle is at the center of the communal organization of Utopian society, exemplified in a number of practices such as the sharing of farm work, the management of surplus crops, or the democratic elections of the governor and the priests. Not only does solidarity benefit the individual Utopian, but it is a prerequisite to ensure the prosperity of the island of Utopia and its moral preeminence over its neighboring countries. However, a limit to this principle is drawn when the republic of Utopia faces specific social difficulties, and also deals with the rest of the world. In order for the principle of solidarity to function perfectly, it is necessary to apply it exclusively within the island or the republic would be at risk. War is not out of the question then, and compassion does not apply to all human beings. This conception of solidarity, summed up as “Utopia first!,” could be dubbed a Machiavellian strategy, devised to ensure the durability of the republic. We will show how some of the recommendations of Realpolitik made by Machiavelli in The Prince (1532) correspond to the Utopian policy enforced to protect their commonwealth.

scholarly journals Differential Self-control Effects: Moral Filtering and the Subsidiary Relevance of Self-control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Hirtenlehner ◽  
Heinz Leitgöb
Keyword(s):  
Action Theory ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Situational Characteristics ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Self Report Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Low Self Control

AbstractCriminological research has identified low self-control as major cause of criminal activity. However, astonishingly little is known about the individual and situational characteristics that affect the functioning of self-control in relation to crime. Recent theorizing, especially in the context of Situational Action Theory, suggests that the interplay of personal and contextual morality creates a morally preselected choice set whose composition determines the relevance of self-control. Guided by the ideas of differential self-control effects and a moral filtering of action alternatives, the present inquiry investigates whether the role of self-control in crime causation depends on the power of moral factors to exclude crime from the set of the considered behavioral options. We argue that the significance of an individual’s capacity for self-control increases with a growing weakness of the moral filter, reaching its maximum when both personal and setting morality encourage criminal activity. Analyses of self-report data on adolescent vandalism delinquency provide support for differential self-control effects. The general picture is that self-control ability matters most when the strength of the moral filter hits a low, which is when both an individual’s own moral rules and the moral norms of the setting facilitate offending. Further evidence suggests that crime contemplation is highest when individual morality and setting morality jointly encourage vandalism. There is also indication that trait self-control has a greater effect on vandalism delinquency at higher levels of crime contemplation. All these results accord with the notion of a subsidiary relevance of control.

scholarly journals Problemi morali nel trattamento della preeclampsia e della corioamnionite

2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio P. Faggioni
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Double Effect ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Alternative Solution ◽  
Ethical Point ◽  
Principle Of Double Effect ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Difficult Situations

Fra le patologie della gravidanza la corioamnionite e la preeclampsia rappresentano situazioni difficili sia dal punto di vista clinico sia dal punto di vista etico. L’articolo affronta con particolare attenzione il problema dell’anticipazione del parto prima che il feto abbia raggiunto la soglia della viabilità. Vengono esaminate le posizioni principali della Tradizione cattolica e le risposte a specifici quesiti date dal Sant’Uffizio tra la fine del XIX secolo e l’inizio del XX. L’Autore ritiene che l’applicazione del principio del duplice effetto a queste situazioni non sia del tutto convincente e propone una soluzione alternativa nella individuazione del solo bene possibile. ---------- Chorioamnionitis and preeclampsy represent difficult situations among pregnancy pathologies both from a clinical and from an ethical point of view. The article treats with particular attention the issue of induced preterm parturition before fetus has reached the threshold of viability. The main positions of the Catholic Tradition and the answers given by the Holy Office at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th are examined. The author believes that the application of the principle of double effect to such situations is non completely convincing and he proposes as an alternative solution the identification of the only possible good.

scholarly journals An Approach to the Analysis of Religious Reality in the Social Phenomenology of Alfred Schütz

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-327
Author(s):  
Alexey Sitnikov
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Alfred Schutz ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Multiple Realities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alfred Schütz ◽  
Social Phenomenology

The article deals with the social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz. Proceeding from the concept of multiple realities, the author describes religious reality, analyses its relationship with everyday, theoretical, and mythological realities, and identifies the areas where they overlap and their specifics. According to Schütz’s concept, reality is understood as something that has a meaning for a human being, and is also consistent and certain for those who are ‘inside’ of it. Realities are structurally similar to one another as they are similar to the reality that is most obvious for all human beings, i.e., the world of everyday life. Religious reality has one of the main signs of genuine reality, that of internal consistency. Religious reality has its own epoché (special ascetic practices) which has similarities with the epoché of the theoretical sphere since neither serve practical objectives, and imply freedom from the transitory issues of everyday life. Just as the theoretical sphere exists independently of the life of a scientist in the physical world and is needed to transfer results to other people, so the religious reality depends on ritual actions and material objects in its striving for the transcendent. Individual, and especially collective, religious practices are performed physically and are inextricably linked with the bodily ritual. The article notes that although Schütz’s phenomenological concept of multiple realities has repeatedly served as a starting point for the development of various social theories, its heuristic potential has not been exhausted. This allows for the further analyzing and development of topical issues such as national identity and its ties with religious tradition in the modern era, when religious reality loses credibility and has many competitors, one of which is the modern myth of the nation. Intersubjective ideas of the nation that are socially confirmed as the self-evident reality of everyday life cause complex emotions and fill human lives, thus displacing religious reality or forcing the latter to come into complex interactions with the national narrative.

A Protest-Cycle Resolution of the Repression/Popular-Protest Paradox

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Brockett
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Central American ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
State Terrorism

Many people [in Guatemala] did begin to join the guerrillas, while many more were sympathetic or quietly supportive. The guerrillas are the only remaining source of defense left to a community or family. I know of villages that experienced actual massacres against innocent campesinos, who were not even members of coops. The survivors of these massacres would often turn to the guerrillas. With all their anger about the murders of their kin and neighbors, there was nowhere else to turn.—quoted in S. Davis and J. Hodson, Witnesses to Political Violence in GuatemalaCentral american events of recent decades show human behavior at both its most courageous and its most barbaric. The opposing phenomena of popular mobilization and state terrorism pose some of the most profound questions that can be asked by social science. How can we explain the willingness of political elites and their agents to slay thousands—tens of thousands—of their fellow human beings, even when their victims are unarmed? Conversely, how do we account for ordinary people undertaking collective action under circumstances so dangerous that even their lives are at risk?

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