Theme B

• Beliefs on life


  • Abortion
  • Euthanasia
  • Animal experimentation
• Creation beliefs


  • Science says the universe began about 15 billion years ago with the Big Bang and then life emerged through a process of evolution by natural selection
  • The Bible says God is transcendent and created the world in six days and rested on the seventh
• Many people assume these two views are incompatible


  What do you think?
• Creationism


  Creationists believe that the universe was created exactly as the Bible describes it
• Archbishop James Ussher tried to establish the date for God's creation of the world and put it at around 6pm on 22 October 4004BC
• Creationism


  This is a fundamentalist approach
• Evolution


  The scientific theory (discovered by Darwin) according to which, types of plants and animal change gradually over long periods of time through a process known as natural selection to become more suitable for their environment
• Theistic evolution/evolutionary creation


  A theory which states that God designed a universe in which everything would naturally evolve
• Intelligent design


  The theory that the universe was created by an intelligent force or being. It is opposed to the theory of evolution because it says there are some creations which are too complex to have just formed
• Genesis 1:1-3: 'In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God said 'Let there be light' – and light appeared.'
• God's spirit


  Pneuma = breath of life
• John 1:1-3: 'Before the world was created, the Word already existed; he was with God, and he was the very same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him.'
• Word


  Logos = Jesus
• Genesis and John begin in the same way – with God's creative word
• Moses speaks God's words to ensure freedom from slavery and a new life
• Jews believe God's words are found in the Law (the Decalogue) which is central to Jewish life. For a Jew, it embodies God's wishes and commands and gives meaning to life
• God speaks to his prophets who pass on his word to his people
• Jesus is the new Moses and will speak God's words to ensure freedom from sin and eternal life
• John is trying to tell his readers that this is a new beginning. God is making a new start and calling a new people to himself. Jesus is pre-existent. He has always been
• Animal experimentation


  • God saw creation was very good. It should be protected
  • Harmful causing unnecessary suffering to animals –could use other methods
  • God made humans 'masters' of creation to care for it. -> stewardship
• Arguments for animal experimentation

  • For human benefit we need to research on humans
  • Animals for food
  • How do you use "be masters of ..."
  • What conditions are animals farmed in?
  • What is good stewardship?
  • How has it been slaughter?
  • Reduce meat for environmental or health reasons
• Animal experiments


  Widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Many of these experiments cause pain to the animals involved or reduce their quality of life in other ways
• If it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer then experimenting on animals produces serious moral problems
• Arguments in favour of animal experiments

  • Experimenting on animals is acceptable if (and only if): suffering is minimised in all experiments
  • human benefits are gained which could not be obtained by using other methods
• Arguments against animal experiments

  • Experimenting on animals is always unacceptable because: it causes suffering to animals
  • the benefits to human beings are not proven
  • any benefits to human beings that animal testing does provide could be produced in other ways
• The three Rs


  A set of principles that scientists are encouraged to follow in order to reduce the impact of research on animals: Reduction, Refinement, Replacement
• The three Rs


  • Reduction: Reducing the number of animals used in experiments
  • Refinement: Refining the experiment or the way the animals are cared for so as to reduce their suffering
  • Replacement: Replacing experiments on animals with alternative techniques
• Scientists say that banning animal experiments would mean either an end to testing new drugs or using human beings for all safety tests
• Animal experiments are not used to show that drugs are safe and effective in human beings - they cannot do that. Instead, they are used to help decide whether a particular drug should be tested on people
• William D H Carey: 'We have 4 possible new drugs to cure HIV. Drug A killed all the rats, mice and dogs. Drug B killed all the dogs and rats. Drug C killed all the mice and rats. Drug D was taken by all the animals up to huge doses with no ill effect. Question: Which of those drugs should we give to some healthy young human volunteers as the first dose to humans (all other things being equal)?'
• Animal experiments only benefit human beings if their results are valid and can be applied to human beings. Not all scientists are convinced that these tests are valid and useful
• Jane Goodall: 'animals have not been as critical to the advancement of medicine as is typically claimed by proponents of animal experimentation. Moreover, a great deal of animal experimentation has been misleading and resulted in either withholding of drugs, sometimes for years, that were subsequently found to be highly beneficial to humans, or to the release and use of drugs that, though harmless to animals, have actually contributed to human suffering and death.'
• Moral status of the experimenters

  The general moral character of the experimenter is irrelevant. What is relevant is the ethical approach of the experimenter to each experiment
• John P Gluck: 'The lack of ethical self-examination is common and generally involves the denial or avoidance of animal suffering, resulting in the dehumanization of researchers and the ethical degradation of their research subjects.'
• The use of animals in research should evolve out of a strong sense of ethical self-examination. Ethical self-examination involves a careful self-analysis of one's own personal and scientific motives. Moreover, it requires a recognition of animal suffering and a satisfactory working through of that suffering in terms of one's ethical values.
• Animal rights


  If an experiment violates the rights of an animal, then it is morally wrong, because it is wrong to violate rights. The possible benefits to humanity of performing the experiment are completely irrelevant to the morality of the case, because rights should never be violated (except in obvious cases like self-defence).
• Justifying animal experiments


  Those in favour of animal experiments say that the good done to human beings outweighs the harm done to animals. This is a consequentialist argument, because it looks at the consequences of the actions under consideration.
• Sanctity of life


  The belief that human life is special and sacred and should be valued and protected because it is given by god.
• Abortion


  Artificial termination of pregnancy.
• Abortion has been legal in the UK since 1967, up to 24 weeks of pregnancy if two doctors sign to say it is appropriate, and it is carried out on registered premises. Reasons include risk to the life or health of the mother, or risk of severe abnormality in the child.