Situation Ethics: Most Morally Justifiable Answer
Some people would agree with the statement that situation ethics is a practical and effective method in calculating what the most morally justifiable answer is. Situation ethics is practical in its moral decision making because one of the key and fundamentals of this ethical system, the four presumptions, is pragmatism; the proposed course of action must work, and must work towards the end, or Love. For example if a mother of four was taken as a prisoner of war, thereby separated from her young family who are unable able to survive without her for long, and that the only way to get herself out of the horror of the prisoner of war camp is to become pregnant, and thereby be granted medically sanctioned leave, the most loving thing would be to commit the
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Who is to suggest and agree on what the most loving thing is? Situation ethics is a subjective system because it makes moral decisions ‘in the heat of the moment’ and in the situation as it is perceived by those in the context. You could not be certain that one person’s perception of the most loving thing in any given situation is the correct and right thing to do. Love is not an objective concept, and could therefore go onto justify unloving results because it is difficult to perceive all possible consequences of an action. If a madman was hunting a young man and asked where the man was hiding in your shop and you lied to protect the man’s life, thinking that this would be the best and loving thing to have done in this situation, however if that young man was a terrorist who later killed thousands and you thereby helped to save his life this would be unjustifiable and unloving, showing that one person’s subjective view of what the most loving thing is and a blindness to all possible consequences means that situation ethics is not a practical method of making ethical
Who is to suggest and agree on what the most loving thing is? Situation ethics is a subjective system because it makes moral decisions ‘in the heat of the moment’ and in the situation as it is perceived by those in the context. You could not be certain that one person’s perception of the most loving thing in any given situation is the correct and right thing to do. Love is not an objective concept, and could therefore go onto justify unloving results because it is difficult to perceive all possible consequences of an action. If a madman was hunting a young man and asked where the man was hiding in your shop and you lied to protect the man’s life, thinking that this would be the best and loving thing to have done in this situation, however if that young man was a terrorist who later killed thousands and you thereby helped to save his life this would be unjustifiable and unloving, showing that one person’s subjective view of what the most loving thing is and a blindness to all possible consequences means that situation ethics is not a practical method of making ethical