Situation ethics

• what does situation ethics believe about extra-marital sex?


  Situation ethics focuses on the particular situation, the interests of the individual person and love and justice and might therefore, permit the breaking of traditional moral rules around sex in day-to-day situations. It would seek a pragmatic approach to extra-marital sex, setting aside fixed moral truths in order to put the person and their relationship at the heart of each decision.
• Situation ethics focuses on the particular situation, the interests of the individual person and love and justice and might therefore, permit the breaking of traditional moral rules around sex in day-to-day situations. It would seek a pragmatic approach to extra-marital sex, setting aside fixed moral truths in order to put the person and their relationship at the heart of each decision.
• Joseph Fletcher uses examples of sexual ethics to illustrate when and how traditional ethical rules might be broken in situations where the most loving thing to do justifies setting aside moral norms. For example he used the example of a married woman who asked a guard to have sex with her and impregnate her so she could be freed from a prisoner of war camp.
• what is a strength?


  Extra-marital sex might be viewed as good in some circumstances. For instance, a wife whose husband has early onset Alzheimer’s disease and is in a care home, may find comfort in an extra-marital relationship while continuing to care for her husband.
• what is weakness?


  Fletchers examples are exceptional ones that are not a suitable basis for a general moral theory.
• what is another weakness?

  Situation ethics puts the needs of the primary protagonist first, which makes it difficult to protect broader family interests and the interests of society as a whole. For example, parents who have extramarital affairs are putting the happiness of their husband or wife and their children at risk, undermining their own relationship with betrayal, and endangering the security of the upbringing of the children.