Review the following ethical dilemmas:
1.John Doe has decided to clone himself. He is sterile. He cannot find anyone to marry him. He wishes to have children. He knows that he will not be able to love a child that is adopted or not connected directly to him biologically. He will be making use of a new procedure that involves taking his skin cells to produce a twin. The twin starts out as an embryo and grows into a child.The child in this case will have the same genetic information as John Doe. John Doe and his child will be twins.
2.Jane Doe is eighteen. For as long as she can
remember she has been sexually attracted to other females. Her parents
belong to a religion that has a religious text stating that God forbids
one to be a lesbian. This religion goes on further to say that lesbians will be
punished in the afterlife. Jane Doe is debating whether she should tell her
parents about her sexual attraction. She has not yet decided if she should come
out to her parents and live as a lesbian now that she is a
legal adult.
3.Joe and Mary
are a couple. Before becoming sterile, they had a child. This child died of a
rare disease. Joe and Mary miss their child terribly. They have heard that
there is a new IVF procedure that can ensure that they can have another child.
However, their religion forbids using IVF. Select 2 of the situations above and
then address 2 of the following:
(i)What is the relation between ethics and religion?
Formulate and investigate the relation.
(ii) For each
case, determine the ethical path of conduct. Then, determine what paths of
conduct would be unethical
(iii)For each
case, what would an emotivism say to appraise what you determine is the ethical
form of conduct?
4.For each
case, would a natural law ethicist agree with what you say is the ethical form
of conduct? Why or why not?
5. Articulate, explain, and evaluate in each case an approach that makes use of divine command ethics.
The intersection of cloning,
sexual orientation, and reproductive technologies, as observed in the offered cases,
leads to ethical dilemmas. However, such mental conflicts brought by these
cases usually present difficulties that need thoughtful consideration, even
when religious beliefs are involved. By analyzing the ethics in relation to
religion and by reflecting on these situations through different ethical
lenses, a suitable roadmap need to be taken. The interaction of ethics and
religion in dealing with the ethical issues presented by cloning, sexual
orientation, and reproductive technologies is analyzed, revealing various
positions; which shows that morality involves diverse aspects such as
utilitarianism,deontological approach, blood vengeance theory, emotivist view,
natural law view, and divine commands.