1. ETHICAL SCHOOLS OF
THOUGHT
MEVELLE L. ASUNCION

2. CLASSIFICATION OF ETHICS
 RULE
 Appeals to a set of criteria, norms or rules
 Ten commandments
 ACT
 Weighing the consequences of the act itself.
 Ex.
 Utilitarianism
 Situation ethics

3. TELEOLOGICAL-
 Gk. Telos, teleos– end or purpose
 Also consequential ethics
DEONTOLOGICAL
 Gk. Deontos, deon ---duty
 Also called duty ethics
 Focus on the kind of act

4. ETHICAL RELATIVISM
 There is no universal or absolute moral principle
 Standards of right and wrong are always relative to a
particular society
 Examples: Eskimos lending or allowing one’s wife to sleep with
a special guest
 Igorots “olog” or trial marriage
 Live-in among Americans
 Muslims to have several wives
 African culture to kill twins at birth
 Jehovah’s witness refuses blood transfusion

5. SITUATION ETHICS
 Joseph Fletcher
 3 approaches to morality
1. Legalism- laws, norms
2. Antinomianism- by the decision of the person involve
3. Situationism
 Moral norms depends on situations
 3 types of love
1. Eros
2. Philia
3. Agape
 Always act on Christian love (AGAPE)

6. 6 PROPOSITIONS OF SITUATIONISM
1. Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love:
nothing else
2. The ultimate norm of christian decisions is love:
nothing else
3. Love and justice are the same, for justice is love
distributed.
4. Love wills the neighbor’s good whether we like him or
not.
5. Only the end justifies the means: nothing else
6. Decisions ought to be made situationally, not
prescriptively.

7. PRAGMATISM
 Charles Pierce and William James
 True and valid form of knowledge:
 Practical
 Workable
 Beneficial
 Useful

8. Questions
 Should the patient be told about the nature of
his/her seriouse illness?
 Would it be more practical to withold the
information for the patient’s own good?
 Would it be more humane and beneficial for a
grossly deformed fetus to be aborted than to suffer
and live a life of unbearable mistery?

9. UTILITARIANISM
 Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
 Actions are good > promote happiness
 Actions are bad > produce unhapiness
 Example:
 Vehicular accident and comatose patient
 Principle of greatest happiness
 An action is good/right insofar as it produces the
greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

10. Questions
 a child born with spina bifida occulata, with open
spine, grossly deformed limbs and damaged brain.
 Should we give the child ordinary treatment?
 Should we give the child special medical assistance?
 Should we just allow the child to die by giving no treatment at
all?
 Should we put the child to death in a painless way.