applications

• theft:

  • SE response: unclear
  • moral agent must assess the motive, foreseeable consequence, desired result + means to obtain it
  • should always focused on the outcome being loving
  • stealing to feed a starving man would be accepted
  • must be selfless love, not selfish
• lying:

  • SE response: unclear
  • similar response to theft
  • no actions intrinsically wrong
  • should spread agape love; lies focused on self-interest would be considered wrong
  • depends on situation, should serve the most loving end
• embryo research:

  • SE response: permitted
  • direct love to beneficiaries, not ‘potential persons’
  • are embryos qualified under Fletcher's 10 principles of personhood?
• designer babies:

  • SE response: permitted - if adequate controls are in place as allows humans to banish disease + improve the species
  • Fletcher believed humans are makers, selectors + designers
  • Fletcher would favour man-made hybrids for dull/dangerous roles
• abortion:

  • SE response: unclear
  • agapeic calculus = number of lives saved e.g. Jew doctor aborted 3k women brought to concentration camps as if they were found pregnant, they would be killed
  • puts persons first before rules (personalism) + assesses foreseeable consequences
• voluntary euthanasia; assisted suicide:

  • SE response: permitted
  • try to find rational, pragmatic + personal decision
  • cases must be judged by their own merits
  • Fletcher = “to prolong life uselessly… is to attack the moral status of a person”
• capital punishment:

  • SE response: unclear
  • assess demands of love
  • no set rules
  • different views e.g. whether Jesus was a pacifist or not, would affect views on capital punishment
  • ‘love’ for society as a whole could mean execution of innocent man to prevent greater harm
  • could create martyrs whose deaths inspire others: is this loving?
• use of animals for food; intensive farming:

  • SE response: unclear
  • FOR: puts persons first = the spectacle of starving children is worse than the practice of intensive farming
  • AGAINST: maximises misery over love = intensive farming is a short-term solution to issue of starving; meat industry contributes to issue i.e. cattle consume 15x more grain than they produce as meat; more loving to abandon intensive farming in favour of more productive farming methods: pragmatic + treats animals as objects of loving concern
• use of animals in scientific procedures [animal testing]; cloning:

  • SE response: permitted - however the need for adequate control of pain is emphasised
  • Fletcher = advocated for use of animals in scientific procedures as a means to the ends of human welfare + pragmatic way of saving human lives
  • most practical, effective + agapeic way of addressing the issue of human disease
• blood sports:

  • SE response: prohibited
  • puts the interests of humans before animals in a case where human pleasure is gained at the expense of animal pain + suffering
  • may damage human character; leads to other forms of violence
  • fox hunting = agapeic? - foxes damage farming + conserve environment hunting is part of human character + more loving than factory farming
• animals as a source of organs for transplant:

  • SE response: unclear
  • SE is directed at persons: for many animals do not qualify but this depends on individual view; personhood: minimum intelligence? self-awareness?
  • those who believe animals are persons will believe donors should be dead/consenting humans
  • those who believe animals aren’t persons will believe most loving thing would be for a transplant as it could save human life
  • currently humans are the only pragmatic source of donor organs: most loving thing would be to pursue other technologies as they are developed