Here are potential responses from different ethical perspectives: Legalist: Taking one's own life is against the law and religious teachings. The man should continue treatment and trust in God. Antinomian: There are no absolute rules. Each person must decide what feels right in their situation based on their values. Situationist: The most loving choice depends on fully understanding the situation and consequences. Both prolonging life and providing for family could be seen as loving acts. Deeper discussion is needed to determine what maximizes well-being for all. Overall, there are good-faith arguments on both sides of this complex issue, and reasonable people can disagree.

1. Situation Ethics
Aim: to know the theory of
situation ethics and to know the
key terms related to this topic.

2. Situation Ethics
The method of ethical
decision making that
states that you must
consider “noble love”
(agape) in decision
making, and that a
moral decision is correct
if it is the most loving
thing to do.

3. Situation Ethics
Even if you follow the law
but you do so without LOVE
your action is not moral.
LOVE guides you as to
when to follow the law
and when to deviate from it.

4. “The morality of an action depends
on the situation”.
Joseph Fletcher (1963)

5. Key Questions
•What does it mean for an action to be
loving?
•How might love be defined?

6. Key Questions
1. Is moral behaviour about following rules or
working things out for ourselves?
2. Are there unbreakable laws to govern moral
behaviour, or should we make our own moral
decisions?
3. Is abortion for health reasons just as bad as
abortion for convenience?
4. Are there ever any situations when you should
ignore established moral rules?
5. When deciding what is right, should the
situation be taken into account?

7. Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991)
 He was an American professor who
founded the theory of Situation ethics in
the 1960s.
 He was a pioneer in bioethics and was
involved in the areas of abortion,
infanticide, euthanasia and cloning.
 He was a priest who later renounced his
belief in God and became an atheist.

8. Task
 A rich man asked a lovely young woman if she
would sleep the night with him. She said ‘No’.
He then asked if she would do it for £100 000.
She said ‘Yes!’
1. Is it wrong to have sex for money:
a) To survive?
b) For luxury purchases?
c) To fund a life-saving operation for a friend or
relative?
In each case, explain your answer.
2. Why might your answers for a, b and c differ?

9. Key Terms
 Agapé love
 Antinomian ethics
 Conscience
 Four working
principles
 Individualistic
 Intrinsically good
 justice
 Law of love
 Legalistic ethics
 Personalism
 Positivism
 Pragmatism
 Prescriptive
 Proportionalism
 Relativism

10. The Theory of Situation Ethics
 Fletcher maintains that there are
essentially three different ways of
making moral decisions.
1. Legalistic ethics
2. Antinomian ethics
3. Situation ethics

11. 3 kinds of ethical theory
Legalistic
Ethics
Antinomian
ethics
Extrinsic
Not part of the
essential nature of
someone or
something; coming
or operating from
outside
An ethical system
that contains rules
for every situation
and/or the
association of doing
good with simply
following those rules
The view that there
are no moral
principles or rules at
all

12. Legalistic Ethics
 Has a set of moral rules and regulations.
 Judaism and Christianity both have legalistic
ethical traditions.
 Fletcher said this runs into problems – life’s
complexities require additional laws. Murder,
killing in self defence, killing in war, killing
unborn human beings etc.
 Becomes complex and like a textbook morality
that leaves people simply to check the manual to
decide what is right and wrong.

13. Legalism
“blindly” observes moral rules without being
sensitive to the situation
we ought to tell the truth in all
situations, even if this means that,
say, millions of people die.
Scenarios:

14. In 2002 the religious police of Saudi
Arabia refused to let a group of girls
escape from a burning building
because they were wearing
“inappropriate” clothing, which
was against the will of Allah.

15. Antinomian Ethics
 The reverse of legalistic ethics.
 It literally means ‘against law’.
 A person using antinomianism doesn’t really
use an ethical system at all.
 He or she enters decision-making as if each
occasion was totally unique. Making a moral
decision is a matter of spontaneity.
 ‘They are, exactly anarchic – i.e. without a rule’.
 Fletcher is also critical of this approach.

16. Antinomian Ethics
existential ” view because it is one that says
that people are always free to choose what
they want

17. Situation Ethics
 One single rule – the rule of agape. This love is
not merely an emotion but involves doing what
is best for the other person, unconditionally.

18. Situation Ethics
 The situationist enters into the moral
dilemma with the principles and rules of
his or her community.
 However, they are prepared to set these
rules aside in the situation if LOVE seems
better served by doing so.

19. Situation Ethics
 ‘The situationist follows a moral law or violates
it according to love’s need’.
Fletcher
 For the situationist, all moral decisions are
hypothetical. They depend on what best serves
love.
 They don’t say that ‘giving to charity is a good
thing’. They only say that giving to charity is a
good thing if …’
 Lying is justified if love is better served by it.

20. An insane murderer who asks you
the whereabouts of his next
victim…
 Should be lied to! A situationist would
be able to do this.
 In that situation, a legalist must tell the
truth.

21. Critical Thinking Task
 A teenage girl has become pregnant as a
result of being raped by a close family
member. She’s very poor and very young.
How would legalists, antinomians and
situationists go about considering what
the moral thing to do is?

22. Situation Ethics
 Situation ethics is sensitive to variety and
complexity. It uses principles to
illuminate the situation, but not to direct
the action.
 Fletcher divides his principles into two
categories:
1. The four working principles and
2. The six fundamental principles

23. The Four Working Principles and
the Six Fundamental Principles

24. Situation ethics is good as it is
always what works for the best.
No matter what the situation,
going with what is the most loving
thing can only lead to more good
than bad
Love is the only thing that is relevant
to all situations unlike laws which
work for some things but not others.
Situation Ethics uses 1 principle so
is easy to remember

25. Love is the most important
criterion of all. Situation Ethics
recognises that love is the most
important thing when making a
moral choice and echoes the
sentiments of the Bible
Situation Ethics puts human beings
and their concerns are at the centre
of morality unlike laws and rules
which often seem to be detrimental
to a person’s wellbeing. This follows
Jesus’ example

26. Four Working Principles
 Pragmatism
 Relativism
 Positivism
 Personalism

27. Six Fundamental Principles
 Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love:
nothing else at all.
 The ruling norm of Christian Decision is love:
nothing else.
 Love and Justice are the same, for love is justice
distributed, nothing else.
 Love wills the neighbour’s good, whether we like
him or not.
 Only the end justifies the means, nothing else.
 Love’s decisions are made situationally, not
prescriptively.

28. Evaluating Situation Ethics
 Strengths  Weaknesses

29. Strengths of Situation Ethics
 Many would welcome the flexibility of
Situation Ethics. It seems less rigid than
other ethical theories.
 It requires very little (if any) theological
assumptions – it in some ways suits our
multicultural, multi-faith age.
 It is practical. It does not too demanding
on those who would follow it.

30. Weaknesses of Situation Ethics
 It is not easy to determine all the
consequences of an action.
 There’s a danger that the ideals of
unconditional love may be polluted by a
selfish human tendency.
 It seems at least possible that Situation
Ethics could be used to justify all kinds of
actions that are simply inexcusable.
Genocide, child abuse?

31. CREATING (Task 3)
A man who had a limited number
of days to live had the option of
using his insurance money to
fund medication which would
prolong his life by a few
months.

32. CREATING (Task 3)
However, if he cashed in on the
insurance, his family would be left
with nothing following his
eventual death.
Thus, his decision to end his life
immediately, with the insurance sum
benefiting his family was stimulated by
the love he felt for them.

33. CREATING (Task 3)
2. Is ending our own life out of love we
have for others justifiable?
1. If your are the man in this moral
dilemma, would you do the same?
3. Would it invalidate all the good things
we did here on earth?