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Summary Religious approaches to sexual ethics are more helpful than secular approaches
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Sexual ethics Essay Plan OCR Alevel RS
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'Natural Law is the most reliable approach when makingdecisions about pre-marital sex.'
Cohabitation and sex before marriage has become increasingly popular compared to the
1960s where fewer than 1 in 20 couple cohabited before marriage. However pre- marital
sex was not as uncommon as we thought, in fact in the eighteenth century, half the brides
in England were pregnant on their wedding day. Therefore We have established Pre-marital
sex exists with or without the harsh doctrine of the Catholic church. Therefore I would argue
that Natural law is not the most reliable approach when making decisions about pre-marital
sex as it is not consistent in its performance as a theory when used in the Catholic church or
outside it.
The strongest line of argument is that Natural law is not most reliable approach when
making decisions about pre-marital sex due to its lack of holisticity and consideration of
growing secular views on relationships and perhaps a more lenient approach such as
Situation Ethics, which still has grounds in religion, is more appropriate.
One support of my argument is, due to its deontological basis, Natural law believes that an
action is right or wrong in itself and therefore is a rigid theory that doesn’t take into account
situation or individual circumstances. This may seem attractive at first as it is universal and
easy to apply as everyone has to follow the same rules but in fact it is impractical as it fails
to take into account human nature. Everyone is different and has different circumstances,
and in fact humans are not built to follow such rigidity. We, like all other sexual creatures,
are subject to instinctive sexual desire ,we were not born to follow rules such as marriage,
therefore one could argue pre-marital sex is just our natural instinct. However, a lack of
rules whatsoever can lead to dangerous consequences such as sexual violence, and the idea
of instinctive sexual desire could be used to justify it, therefore some kind of rules are
necessary, just perhaps not the one of necessary marriage. Situation ethics offers a solution
to this by taking each situation individually into account, therefore one can assess whether
premarital sex is ethical, whether there is an abuse of power or a genuine love that could
result later in a marriage.
Anotehr support of my argument is that Natural law does not consider the positive effects
of a unifying sexual act between a loving couple should be good reason enough without the
need to focus on reproduction, especially in a modern age where women live longer. It does
not take into account sex for reasons other than reproduction e.g. pleasure and intimacy.
Whereas Situation Ethics offers a solution to this, Fletcher wrote that Jesus never said
anything about pre-marital sex and “whether any form of sex is good or evil depends on
whether love is fully served”. Therefore pre-marital sex can be justified for the prupose of
pleasure as long as the couple are in love. However This argumemt could be disputed as it
does not take into account the negative outcomes that could come from this situation such
as unwanted pregnancy or STI’s, making it unreliable, whereas since there are intrinsic
moral truths in Natural law, these could be prevented. Although this argument is convincing
I still think Situation Ethiecs is the more reliable approach as unwanted pregnancy and STIs
cannot be eradicated in the world, so it is better that people are honest and know they will
be treated with respect as Situation Ethics allows, than to hide such situations as it is viewed
as morally incorrect by Natural Law.
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