Sexual Ethics
Possible Questions
Whether or not religious beliefs and practices concerning sex and
relationships have a continuing role in the area of sexual ethics
Whether choices in the area of sexual behaviour should be entirely private
and personal, or whether they should be subject to societal norms and
legislation
Whether normative theories are useful in what they might say about sexual
ethics
Premarital and Extramarital sex
Religion and marriage
In Christian thought, a marriage has the following elements:
It is a public event where commitment is declared, and promises are made
It is intended for companionship, raising of children and the fulfilment of
sexual desire
It is intended to be a lifelong relationship ‘til death do us part’
It is a covenant relationship where from that day onwards the two individuals
are one in mind and body
For Catholic Christians, marriage is regarded as one of the sacraments
Covenant: a scared agreement between God and his people
Sacrament: an outward sign that is a means of receiving God’s grace. Baptism and
Eucharist are also sacraments
Issues around premarital sex
Modern attitudes to premarital sex have been affected by a number of factors:
1. Cohabitation: there has been an increase in cohabitating couples. In the
1960s only 5% of couples cohabited. It is now at least 50%. Couples cohabit
for a number of reasons – they may be living together as a ‘trial’ before
marriage, they may be cohabitating as an alternative to marriage, or they may
be opposed to the idea of marriage
2. Contraception: contraception is now available more freely than in previous
generations. Hence people can be sexually active with a relatively low risk of
pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, this means that perhaps pre-
marital sex is more popular because there is no risk of pregnancy
3. Secularisation: the idea that sex should not occur outside of marriage was
largely influenced by religious teaching – these teachings are now less
prominent in people’s lives. According to a survey, 40.2% of people living in the
UK are non-Christian. Cohabitation is no longer referred to as ‘living in sin’.
Issues around extramarital sex
,Religious teaching on extramarital sex is seemingly clearer than the teaching on
premarital sex. ‘Do not commit adultery’ is one of the Ten Commandments and
Jesus’ teaching on divorce in one of the gospels states that divorce is only
permissible when adultery has occurred. Yet a number of issues arise:
Is extramarital sex still morally wrong if the couple in question has an
agreement to have an open marriage?
If a person who is in a committed cohabiting relationship has an affair, is this
premarital or extramarital sex? Is it as wrong as a married person having an
affair? It should be the same thing as marriage or not, the couple would still
have the same emotional connection
Religious teaching on monogamous marriage has gradually evolved. In the
Old Testament, Abraham had a concubine as well as a wife, David and
Solomon had multiple wives?
Homosexuality
The law on homosexuality
The law on rights for gay people has changed considerably over the last 60 years
The 1957 Wolfenden Report recommended that homosexual acts between
consenting adults should not be illegal – this recommendation was supported by
an appeal to Mill’s Harm principle
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any
member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to
others”
Patrick Devlin argued that homosexuality should remain illegal as this is part
of society’s common morality, and society needs a common morality to survive
This argument was lost, and homosexuality was decriminalized in 1967
In 2005, gay people were allowed to undertake civil partnerships – full marriage
rights were given in 2014
Religion and homosexuality
Much of the Biblical material that opposes homosexuality comes from the Old
Testament
In Leviticus 18:22 it commands that men should “not have sexual relations
with a man as one does with a woman” – later on, it suggests that such an
act is punishable by death
The city of Sodom is destroyed by God in the book of Genesis and one of its
crimes seems to be homosexual acts between men
From the New Testament – “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men…will inherit the
Kingdom of God”
For Christians following a Natural Law ethic, the primary precept of
reproduction governs much of their thinking on sexual ethics and would seem to
rule out homosexual relationships
, Should choices in the area of sexual behaviour be entirely private and
personal, or should they be subject to societal norms and legislation?
Entirely private + personal Subject to societal norms
PARA 1 There are some situations PARA 3 Sex can never be exclusively
(normally extreme) where the rules private: Not only does a sexual
can be bent, so we need to focus relationship involve another person, but
more on the individual situation - human beings are sexual beings, the
Situation ethics is the most way people live their sex lives affects
permissive and accepting of the how they relate to wider society.
concept of sexual behaviour as A society that advocates
private and personal: because it was extramarital sex for example, would
devised to permit the setting aside of put marriages at risk, and marriage
social rues if that is the most loving thing break-ups can have significant
to do. Because of its focus on consequences for both the adults
personalism and individual and any children involved – If sexual
situations SE would not just rely on behaviour was not subject to any kind of
laws and societal norms and would societal norms and legislation, this could
justify certain actions in certain lead to people being disloyal to their
situations. partners and therefore contributing to
For example, Fletcher gives the the breakdown of family values. For
example of a woman who must have sex example, psychologist Ana Nogles
with a spy in order to gain information found that for children, living in an
with a view to ending the war sooner and environment where their parents are
he argues that in this extreme case, unfaithful to each other has long lasting
extra-marital sex would be justified impacts on how children view their own
because the outcome is the most loving later relationships. This would affect their
for the greatest number – it would save internal working model, leading them to
lots of innocent people from being killed view their own romantic relationships as
at war. untrustworthy and adulterous – This is of
Thus, Fletcher would allow for the rules course a big disadvantage of having no
to be bent in extreme circumstances if rules around extra-marital sex.
the outcome produces the most amount
of love, so sexual behaviour is more Counter: However, if we made a law
personal for Fletcher. against homosexuality, this would be
problematic as it would not allow
individuals to be themselves and flourish
into the person they want to be/ feel like
they are. Psychology has suggested that
showing unconditional positive regard
(complete acceptance) in therapy
increases a persons self-esteem and
confidence, meaning sexual behaviour
has to be private and personal to allow
for complete acceptance of all
individuals and who they want to be. If
homosexuality is rejected this would
cause individuals to feel isolated which
can lead to mental health problems and
issues with self-esteem.
PARA 2 Societal norms and rules may PARA 4 Having no rules on pre-
not necessarily reflect the views of marital sex could lead to extremely
the individual: As the UK is a mulit- young individuals engaging in
cultural country, consisting of people sexual activity at too young of an
