Religion And Medical Ethics
Revision Cards specifically on:
- Cloning
- Suicide + Euthanasia
- Abortion
- Fertility Treatment
- Created by: Samantha
- Created on: 13-05-12 15:36
What Is Cloning?
Cloning is making an exact genetic replica of a living being
Reasons to clone:
- Get Stem Cells
- To Treat illnesses
Muslims Believe:
- Danger to human personality
- Danger to human dignity + honour
- Allah is the creator
- Clone doesnt have a mother or father
- Harmful to the society
- Causes disruption to nature
- Unnatural
Some Muslims Believe:
- Cloning is a form of creation they're creating from things that already exist
- Islam encourages research
- Most will accept cloning of plants + animals but not humans
Christians Believe:
- Similar believes as muslims
- Roman Catholics are agains it because it uses spare embryos.
- Its also taking over God's creation.
What Is Fertility Treatment?
When a couple can't concieve a baby, fertility treatment can help them do so.
IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) = egg + sperm put together in a labrotary. Becomes an embryo. The embryo gets implanted into the womans womb.
Issues raised by IVF:
- 'Spare Embryos' = which are destroyed
- Man/Woman infertile = use a donor - some people object because the child wouldnt be of the parents.
- People see it as unfaithful and the child would be illegitimate.
Surgessy = implant womans egg into another woman so she has to go through pregnancy instead.
AID = artificial insemination donor
AIH = artificial insemination husband
Muslims believe:
- pregnancy is Allah's will
- Quran tells stories of Sara (wife of Ibrahim) who couldnt get pregnant but eventually did.
- Muslim men can have more than one wife + that is a way around infertility.
- It is bringing another person into the relationship.
- The child will be illegitmate
- Infertility is a disease and it is muslims duty to find treatments for any disease
- That embryos arent human beings so you can destroy 'spare embryos'.
Christians Believe:
- Fertility treatment should be encouraged
- Jesus was a healer + would want to heal infertility
Other Christians (Roman Catholics) believe:
- If you are infertile it is because of Gods will
- Life begins at the point of conception + if you destroy 'spare' embryos you are murdering a human being
- Using donor brings another person into the relationship
- the child will be illegitimate
What is Abortion?
When someone makes the choice to end a pregnancy.
Reasons why a woman would want an abortion:
- shes very young
- result of ****
- child may have serious health disabilities when born
Abortion is only legal in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Issues raised by abortion:
- when conception happens a foetus is human, If aborted some people believe its murder.
- Some people believe the foetus is not human until its born.
- Some people believe the rights of a woman is greater than a foetus'.
Muslims believe:
- abortion not generally accepted.
- is a crime against a living human being.
- Imam Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111) said: as the foetus develops it becomes a bigger sin to abort it.
- Surah 17:31 : "kill not your children for fear of want: we will provide sustenance for them as well as for you. Verify the killing of them is a sin."
- A pregnant woman can't be executed until the birth of the child.
- Soul is in place within the first 42 days
- Others believe - 120 days after conception
- acceptable if mothers health at risk or in cases of ****.
- Against Allahs will
Christians believe:
- foetus: boy - 40 days, Girl - 80 days (ensoulment)
- infanticide
- Methodist = kinder to abort foetus if it would be born with disabilities or into awful poverty.
- Aborion acceptable in some circumstances.
- Roman Catholics dont allow abortion even if the child is a result of ****. Only time allowed if the life of the mother needs to be saved.
- Roman Catholics: all life is sacred + shouldnt be delibrately destroyed.
- Against gods will.
What is Suicide + Euthanasia?
Suicide - someone chooses to end their own life.
Euthanasia - 'assisted suicide' someone helps someone else to end their life.
Moral Issues:
- Suicide - Selfish way out, family has to deal with the consequences.
- Euthanasia - remove rights to choose (involuntary), against religious beliefs, if it becomes legal people would stop wanting to be burdens + relatives use this as an option to avoid the hassle of caring for them.
What is Passive Euthanasia? : Withdrawal of treatment. Doctors are not actively taking a life, they are simply stopping the treatment. Passive Euthanasia is legal in the U.K.
What is Voluntary Euthanasia? : someone who asks for it.
What is Involuntary Euthanasia? : Someone chooses to end someones life without their permission... e.g that person is in coma so a relative shall make the decision.
Muslims believe:
- Euthanasia + Suicide is wrong
- every soul is important + sacred.
- suffering of pain is the test of faith
- Allah is the one to decide your death
- Very few muslims would argue that suicide is acceptable in the fight against evil.
Christians believe:
- All life is sacred
- God decides when a person should die
- God gives the gift of life
- Euthanasia + suicide are not acceptable
- Some christians belive that passive euthanasia is allowed
- A few think that suicde + euthanasia should be allowed.
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