C.

LAW AND The TEN COMMANDMENTS

LAW and CONSCIENCE
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before
me.
NATURAL LAW 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven images.
The natural law is the code of moral conduct 3. Thou shalt not take the Lord's name
which reasons indicates as conformable to in vain.
human nature. Human being is nature 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep
adapted to live in society, and consequently it holy.
those actions are good which are 5. Honor thy Father and thy Mother
conformable to the welfare of society. 6. Thou shalt not kill.
EXAMPLE: 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• telling the truth 8. Thou shalt not steal.
• obeying lawful authority 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
• paying one’s debts 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house, wife or possessions
Whereas those actions are bad which will
tend to disrupt society. THE PRIMARY CONCEPT
EXAMPLE:
• stealing
• rebelling against lawful authority  Aquinas goes on to develop the Five
Primary Precepts of ethics in his
HENCE, it is morally good by the natural to Natural Moral Law. Ultimately, these
be temperate an chaste, whereas it is are derived from his general
opposed to the natural law to drink to excess assumption that humans are
or to seek sexual gratification in ordinately. naturally motivated to do good and
avoid evil.
1. Firstly, the most basic and natural
PROPERTIES OF THE NATURAL LAW good is to seek self-preservation.
This is necessary for all other
1. It is universal. Natural Law is a moral goods
constitutive element of human 2. Secondly, once the human has
nature. survived, the next obvious
2. It is obligatory. Natural law is human natural good is reproduction.
nature, calling for itself to be 3. Thirdly, once more humans are
actualized, to be "lived" according being born, there is an obligation
to its basic and essential demands. to nurture them through
3. It is recognizable. Itis imprinted in the education.
human nature and man has the light 4. Fourthly, given that humans are
of reason to know it.
"Sunderesis" - able to learn, they must then
light of reason by Scholastic learn to live together and live in
philosopher. society.
Ex. Do good and avoid evil, 5. Fifth and finally, since society is
Honor your father and mother, established, humans should
Be honest <turn to their ultimate source
4. It is immutable or unchangeable. and give worship to God.
Natural law is human nature.
THE SECONDARY PRECEPTS

• These depend on our own judgements

of what actually to do in a given situation
• These are liable to faulty reasoning
• We often look at the consequences to
work it out
- so they can be more teleological.
 • Secondary precepts require:
• Experience
• Use of reason NATURAL LAW VS POSITIVE LAW
• The exercise of wisdom God The state/government

CLARIFYING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAWS OF NATURE

Rationalism/justice The law is just
AND NATURAL LAW Morals control
Universal laws Man made laws
LAWS OF NATURE Universal principals Self-preservation/law is
order
Born rights Majority rules
 Universal laws of science understood
by analyzing the physical world. e.g. Common good “General will” the greatest
good for the greatest
amount of people
Copernicus's heliocentric universe or
Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
 Simply stating what IS [scientifically,
What is International Law?
Descriptive Laws
factually the case The universal system of rules and principles
concerning the relations between sovereign
States, and relations between States and
NATURAL LAW international organizations such as the United
 Concerned with the moral law of Nations.
how human beings should behave. It
is understood by reflecting on human In International law, a 'State' is a recognized
nature and rationally working out and independent country or nation.
what leads to happiness.
 Recommending a particular way of PRIVATE LAW
Prescriptive Laws
Two important principles of the Private Law:
behaving; what one 1. Principle of equality of the parties
OUGHT to do. 2. Voluntary agreement of the parties

Four Sources of Law Principle of equality:

Despite inequalities in the real life-
1. Natural Law (God/laws of nature) -all persons are equal in private law
2. International Law Remember public law
3. Positive Law (Government) -administration is always superior to
4. Private Law the individual.
In private law
POSITIVE LAW -no party can impose obligations or
duties unilaterally over the other
 Also known as legal positivism; it
parties (individuals) unless they give
regards valid law as the command
their consent.
of the sovereign law giver, enforced
through a system of sanctions CLASSIFICATIONG OF LAWS
imposed by the sovereign.
 There is a denial of the necessary
connection between morality and Public Law
the law.
 Whether or not the application of the • The state is directly involved
law in a particular situation may be • Concerned with the legal relationships and
morally unjust or have undesirable disputes between individuals and the state
consequences, does not alter what is
the legally required decision.
 Law as it is
 you think it is bad. It is apparent that
conscience maybe in error
• Example: TYPES OF CONSCIENCE
- Criminal law
- Constitutional law
-Administrative law • Scrupulous conscience means a
- Taxation law conscience that judges that there is sin
where there really is no sin, or that judges that
something is a mortal sin when it is only a
Private Law (Civil law) venial sin.

•The state is indirectly involved Example: A nurse engages in hospital small

•Concerned with the legal relationship and talk with another nurse and then feels guilty
disputes between individuals of a grave violation of professional secrecy.
• Examples:
- Contract law • Delicate conscience judges correctly and
-Property law with careful attention concerning the acts
- Family law that are about to be performed
- Tort law
-Commercial law • Certain conscience means convinced
without any doubt that an action is good or
bad.
WHAT IS CONSCIENCE ?
• Doubtful conscience means when you
Conscience- knowing right from wrong cannot choose between good and bad
Conscious – being awake or aware choices.

CONSCIENCE • Lax conscience means when you see no sin

where there actually is sin.
Example: A nurse reveals a very serious
 Conscience is a judgement of professional secret to lay people and
human reason concerning the moral considers the disclosure mere small talk
goodness or evil of one’s own
action.
 It is not separate faculty. a special
little voice within us, whispering OBLIGATIONS RELATIVE TO CONSCIENCE
suggestions regarding our conduct.
 It is an act of human intellect  When our conscience is honestly
regarding an action with respect to and correctly formed, we are
moral matter obliged to follow it in any
 It is a practical judgement of the circumstances.
intellect as to what is right and  Once we are convinced that we
wrong have an obligation to do or avoid a
certain actions, we are duty bound
Correct conscience to act upon our convictions
 tells us when something is a good  No institution and no person, no
choice or a bad choice and that this church, no Pope can claim
decision is in agreement with what dominion over conscience.
that thing actually is according to  An individual must always act in
the objective law. accordance with a certain
conscience.
 No one is allowed to act with a
Erroneous conscience doubtful conscience.
judges something incorrectly (sometimes  When our conscience is honestly and
called false conscience), when something is correctly formed, we are obliged to
bad you think it is good and when it is good follow it in any circumstances.
 Once we are convinced that we
have an obligation to do or avoid a
certain actions, we are duty bound
to act upon our convictions
 No institution and no person, no
church, no Pope can claim
dominion over conscience.
 An individual must always act in
accordance with a certain
conscience.
 No one is allowed to act with a
doubtful conscience
 If one is in doubt whether there is a
law forbidding a particular action, or
whether his action would be in these
particular circumstances for bidden
by a law, he should obtain advice as
possible.
 Consequent judgment occurs after
an action has taken place. What
must a person do when his
conscience is in doubt? When a
person conscience is in doubt, one is
required to determine the good or
evil of particular choice.
 5 TYPES OF ABORTION

THE MORAL ISSUES OF ABORTION

1. Natural abortion

ISSUES OF ABORTION - Laymen's term called miscarriage

The practice of Abortion - Unintentional or involuntary
- It a method of birth control in which Example: pregnant woman slip on a wet floor
conception is terminated rather than
prevented.
Ancient Greece, Plato & Aristotle 2. Induced Abortion
- Recommended abortion to avoid
excess population
- The intention makes the act
The Hippocratic Oath
voluntary
- Pledge not to give women
- Called direct or intentional abortion
treatments that will lead to abortion;
- Deliberately induced expulsion of a
it was common practice.
living fetus before it has become
Early Philippine society
viable
- Unplanned pregnancy had to drink Example: doing jogging, horseback riding,
bitter solution of certain tree leaves
biking, and aerobic dancing may cause
or roots to induced abortion
inflammation of the uterine wall, thereby
- Local hilot
inducing abortion
- It is illegal but clandestine practice

Article I, Section 12 of the 1986 Philippine 3.Therapeutic Abortion

Constitution
-deliberately induced abortion of a
" The state recognizes the sanctity of life and living fetus to save the mother from
shall protect and strengthen the family as a the danger of death brough on by
basic autonomous social institution." pregnancy.
Example: Pregnant mother who has a heart
• Despite this provision; continued illegal condition, will probably have heart attack if
practice of abortion she carries her pregnancy to term

Types of Abortion

4. Eugenic Abortion
Abortion - Refers to the expulsion of a living
fetus from a mother's womb before its viable.
-Recommended in cases where
Medical parlance - Abortion is termination of certain defects are discovered in the
pregnancy, spontaneously or by induction, developing fetus.
before viability. ARGUMENT:
Is it better for a child not to be born than for it
Viability - has to do with the child's capability lead a miserable life by being burdened with
to live independently of its mother after it has crippling genetic disorders
left the womb. - likewise called selective abortion

28th week- considered viable

Towards the end of 7th month- fetus born
during this period has 10% chance of survival 5. Indirect Abortion

- The removal of the fetus occurs as a

secondary effect of a legitimate or
 licit action, which is direct and IMPLANTATION
primary object of the intention. • Ensoulment occurs at
Example: Ectopic Pregnancy implantation
- only the surgical removal of the fetus can • Implantation takes place 7
save the mother's life. days after conception
• embryo goes down from
fallopian tubes towards the
THE MORAL ISSUE uterus and burrows itself in
the endometrium or uterine
wall.
• THEORY OF IMMEDIATE HOMINIZATION • IUD/Morning Pills is morally
• THEORY OF DELAYED ANIMATION permissible to prevent
implantation
IMMEDIATE HOMINIZATION
UNITY AND UNIQUNESS
•
• This is the theory that immediate
hominization contends that a new human  Ensoulment occurs when the unity
person exist immediately upon conception and uniqueness of the fetus are
• Greek philosopher established
- The soul enters at conception  This happens between 2 or 4 weeks
• Magisterium of Catholic Church after conception (7-14 days
-the moment of conception, the implantation happens
spiritual soul of each person is  Abortion at this stage of fetal
"immediately created by God" development is no longer
permissible.

DELAYED ANIMATION
"LOOKS" HUMAN
 Theory of delayed animation
upholds that ensoulment occurs  Ensoulment occurs when the fetus
atthe later time after the moment of already looks human
conception.  It take place during 5th and 6th of
St. Anselm and St. Augustine fetal development
- Only the expulsion of the informed  Nostril of the fetus are complete
embryo or living fetus, was murder;
hence, it is morally illicit.
- -they maintained that there is no life ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY
before the information of the embryo
or until quickening.  Ensoulment occurs when electrical
impulses or activities are already
St. Thomas Aquinas detectable from the brain, around
- -he believed that the intellectual soul the 8th week of pregnancy
is directly created by God, not from  It indicates the brain is functioning
conception but subsequently  Count the beginning of life
thereafter: the soul is the embryo (ensoulment)
(nutritive soul) from the beginning,  Intellectual life signs of brain activity
then the sensitive soul, and lastly the
intellectual soul.
- The fertilized ovum or the morula,
QUICKENING
blastula and the early embryo
cannot be animated by the
intellectual soul.  Ensoulment takes place when the
- mother can feel the spontaneous
movement of the fetus during the
10th to 12th week pregnancy
  The pills and IUD may act during 8
VIABILITY days
 During when pregnancy test shows
negative results
 Ensoulment occurs at viability  morning-after pill may act
 28th week or 7 month of pregnancy  It is not covered under current
abortion laws in as much as it
BIRTH precedes the stage when a woman
knows she is pregnant and when the
 The fetus can survive outside the
diagnosis has been undertaken.
womb
 Ensoulment occurs at birth
 Child become biological
independent
 THREE GENERAL VIEWPOINTS
ENSOULMENT OCCURS DURING OF ABORTION:
FERTILIZATION PROCESS.

1. CONSERVATIVE
PRE-IMPLANTATION PERIOD
2. LIBERAL
3. MODERATE AND INTERMIDIATE
 About 300-500 million sperms are
deposited in the vagina -> uterus -›
ovary 1. CONSERVATIVE
 Ovum -> released from ovary -›
fallopian tube to fertilized
 Ovum survival time 12-24 hours after  The conservative position declares
released that abortion is never permissible, or
 If no fertilization happen, the ovum at most, is permissible, as in the case
disintegrate of a cancerous or an ectopic
 Sperm can survived for at least 5 pregnancy
days, depending on the conditions
in the vagina 2. LIBERAL POSITION
 Capacitation is giving the sperm the
capacity to fertilized the ovum
 States that abortion is always
 This capacitation process happens 6
permissible, whatever the state of
to 8 hours after ejaculation or sexual
fetal development may be
intercourse
 The right of a woman to make

decisions that affect her own body.
Example: In the case of rape, the female
victim wishes to prevent a possible
conception, she can take the morning -after 3. MODERATE POSITION
pill or may use IUD to kill the remaining sperm  Has freedom to control her own
in the uterus reproductive capabilities
 Moderate position holds that
CURRETAGE abortion is morally permissible up to
a certain stage of fetal
If within the 8 day period following the sexual development or for a limited set of
assault the lining of the uterus can be reasons sufficient to justify the taking
scraped or rasped off by the curettage, of life in that special circumstances
implantation can be prevented and  Abortion before quickening is
pregnancy will not continue. morally legitimate.
 Legal sense, curettage is performed
on a raped and/ or incest victim
within the 8th day period after the
sexual attack.
Consideration about 8th day:
  It protects the reputation of the
woman
PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT  In the name of justice, those who
suffers the co sequences of their
 DISAPPROVING VIEW OF ABORTION moral decisions should be the ones
 Both abortion and infanticide are to make those judgements.
condemnable crimes
 "from the moment of conception, 2. SOCIAL REASONS
the life of every human being is to be
respected in an absolute way
 The pro-choice position helps
because man is the only creature on
provide an adaptation to world that
earth that God has "wished for
no longer needs nor can afford
himself
unlimited childbearing;
 • human life is sacred from its
 It alleviates economic, sociological,
beginning
or demographic problem
 No one can claim for him/herself the
 Anticipates the social costs involved
right to directly destroy an innocent
in the care, support, and education
human being
of a severely handicapped
 The pro-life movement is committed
individual during his/her lifetime
to respecting an individual's right to
 It makes an important contribution
EFFECTS OF ABORTION to building a society in which there is
no bias against the poor in favor of
life even if that right is uncertain or in
the affluent and the powerful;
doubt.
 It checks overpopulation and
Physical effect reduces unwanted pregnancies,
 Psychological effect are guilt, child abuse or prostitution, maternal
suicidal tendencies, loss of sense of deaths through illegal or dangerous
fulfillment, mourning, loss of abortions, poverty and illness
confidence, lower self-esteem,
hostility, self-destructive behavior, 3. FETAL REASONS
anger, rage, helplessness, loss of  It prevents the births of terribly
interest in sex, inability to forgive malformed or defective children.
oneself, nightmares and frustration,  Child deformity will cause the family
thwarted material instinct, and to incur staggering financial and
interest in babies psychological costs
PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT  Postnatal method of eliminating a
couple's offspring if its sex found to
be undesirable.
The justifications for the expulsion of the fetus Example: Chinese, Korea and Indians .
maybe classified into:
1. PERSONAL
2. SOCIAL
3. FETAL

1. PERSONAL
 It underscores freedom of choice ~
Personal responsibility and choices
 Safeguards the mother from a
pregnancy that would threaten her
life
Example: cancerous uterus, ectopic
pregnancy, cardiac complications, and
psychological trauma