One should always consider their actions in light of ethics
Is it moral for humans to use contraceptives in defiance of God's will? When a buddy of mine approached me the morning after having unprotected sex to ask my opinion regarding the use of contraceptives, I was met with these two questions. The decisions we take and the deeds we commit establish our morality. What is moral in one situation or for one person may not necessarily be moral in another situation or for another person. To determine what is good or bad, people must take into account the circumstances around their choices as well as their personal beliefs. Hence, I believe that free will is an important aspect of decision making that all humans should be allowed. Nevertheless, freely making some decisions such as one's religious affiliation and place and time to be somewhere may deny the person the freedom to make free choices to some extent. It is also inevitable that even though people should make their choices, their right to autonomy is usually limited by rules that bind their societies. The societal norms also limit the people's freedoms to act on their free will. The paper will discuss a past situation in which a friend's religious beliefs and her scientific knowledge contradicted leading to an ethical dilemma. In my religion, followers are not allowed to use family planning methods like pills and condoms. According to the religious book, humans have the responsibility of multiplying to make the world full. Also, involving one's self in sexual intercourse before marriage is a sin. However, as a person who has studied biology and therefore understands the working of contraceptives and their uses, I believe contraceptives are morally permissible.
The situation surrounding the ethical dilemma
Before advancing further in the argument, it is important that I explain the situation surrounding the ethical dilemma. We had gone to a friend's birthday party after school and Lucy accompanied her boyfriend, Fred. Lucy goes to worship every Sunday and believes that people should not involve in intercourse before marriage. She also believes that it is evil to drink alcohol as her faith does not condone the act. On that day, Lucy was given a drink by one of her friends, and without knowing that it had some alcohol content, she liked it and took several glasses of the same drink by the end of the party. At around 12 am, Lucy asked Fred to take her to his place because she was tired and needed to rest and yet she felt too sleepy to go home. Fred took her to his room where they slept together. In the morning, Lucy found out that the two had had sex. Furthermore, she discovered that she had not been raped and that she had made the decision on her own. Fred even thanked her for agreeing to "give him a good time." She became alarmed that not only had she had sex, she had also taken alcohol and may become pregnant unless something is done. Therefore, she called me to ask about the options she had. I asked her to meet me near a dispensary, and we sat down for a talk before she made her decision.
Analyzing the problem from different perspectives
We started by looking at her beliefs and the consequences of her actions. According to her, her free will was compromised by her faith. As a religious person, she was expected to be bound by the commandments that are written in her holy book. According to the faith, sinning would lead to suffering during judgment day, and therefore, one should avoid doing things that are sinful to go to heaven. Sinning includes all actions, thoughts or anything that goes against the teachings of the religion. The birth control according to the teachings is a sin because it prevents people from filling the world as God wanted. Already she had sinned by first drinking alcohol and involving herself in intercourse. On the other hand, Lucy was not ready to have a baby, and therefore, she wanted to prevent the pregnancy from happening.
Utilitarian perspective
We analyzed the problem from several perspectives apart from the religious perspective that Lucy was looking using. According to Utilitarianism, the consequences of actions determine whether or not an action is ethical or not (Robert Cavalier Philosophy Department Carnegie Mellon). In the case, using a contraceptive would prevent pregnancy. Preventing pregnancy would mean that there would be no birth and therefore, Lucy would have what she desires. Unplanned pregnancies have several limitations as compared to other pregnancies. First, they lead to the suffering of the mother. People may alienate the mother because of her pregnancy and call her names. Parents may see her as a bad example to their children and therefore heighten the alienation. The pregnancy would also disrupt Lucy's education. She would either have to stop attending school during the period of pregnancy or go to school and be shunned by her friends. Nobody would want to know what led to the pregnancy. The baby that would probably be born would suffer a lack of adequate food and other problems such as adoption. The child would also be called a bustard for his or her life. On the other hand, preventing the pregnancy using emergency contraceptives may lead to her sinning and potentially going to her as her preacher says. If people know that she indeed used a family planning method, she would still be shunned by the church and may still face stigma. Therefore, there are negative consequences that would come from either of the actions. As a utilitarian, one has to choose the action with the most desirable results. I advised that he takes contraceptives for several reasons. First, it would prevent the trouble of raising the child as a single and unprepared mother. It would also save the child the pain of growing up without basic needs because he or she was born by an unprepared mother. Because if people knew that she used emergency contraceptives, they would still stigmatize her, I told her that people would not find out. Pharmacists have the responsibility of maintaining confidentiality. Therefore, unless Lucy tells someone or allows the pharmacist to share her story, the secret would be safe. Therefore she would not be stigmatized.
Kantian perspective and the good of humanity
We also looked at the issue from a non-consequentialist point of view. According to the Kantian theory of ethics, actions that are done for the sake of good will and that the laws that guide the actions can become universal laws are ethical. Kant's theory is deontological, and the consequences are not the basis of deciding between right and wrong ("Could I rationally act on my maxim in the PSW?"). Therefore, results of either taking or not taking contraceptives do not matter in the decision of whether or not the actions are morally upright. One of the important questions while using the Kantian perspective was whether or not everyone who was rationally upright would act the way we proposed. Another question was whether or not the action respected humanity. Based on biological knowledge and the fact that religion also encourages rationality, we thought that preventing pregnancy to prevent suffering was something that if proposed rational people would do. Furthermore, it is a fact that people usually control fertility by several ways. The methods include abstaining, the use of condoms and the use of hormonal contraceptives. The only difference between what we were proposing was that unlike the other religious people, Lucy would use hormonal pills. The logic was the same, but the methods were different. Also, letting the child suffer when there was another alternative would be unacceptable for any reasonable person.
Lucy's reasons for making the decision
The decisions to use the contraceptive or not was also supposed to be based on which decisions would be good for humanity. Therefore we had to consider the benefits of getting pregnant or not getting pregnant. Several points became clear. One of the points was that getting pregnant at the early age was both bad for the lady and the child. Getting pregnant just to fulfill religious obligations would be using the child as a means to an end, something that is not right according to Kant's philosophy ("Could I rationally act on my maxim in the PSW?"). It was also the duty of Lucy as a woman to ensure that her life and that of her family were not miserable when she could prevent it from happening.
Retaining the right to decide
We also had to consider the real reason why Lucy wanted to make the decision. According to her, she wanted to ensure that she does what is right for her, her family and also the baby that would be potentially be born if fertilization is left to occur. She also wanted to ensure that the use of emergency contraceptives was not similar to abortion as she did not support abortion and therefore would not engage in it for whatever reason. I ensured not to make the decision for her despite the fact that I supported the use of the contraceptives because by making the decisions I would have denied her the freedom. Therefore, all I did was to help her identify the advantages and disadvantages of taking the pills or not taking them. Finally, she decided that she would take the pills because it was the best thing to do considering that the holy books did not say what people are supposed to do after engaging in sex unintentionally and being a state of potentially getting pregnant and yet avoidable.
Summary of the ethical decision
In summary, we used the both consequentialist utilitarian theory and the deontological Kantian theory to decide that it was ethical for Lucy to take family planning pills in order to avoid an unplanned pregnancy. Even though Lucy was a religious person who believed in virtue ethics and the religious theory of ethics, none of the perspectives contained a reasonable answer to the dilemma at hand. The religious perspective only took away the right to decide what is right and wrong without offering solutions for things that had gone wrong. From the situation, I learned that even though we should not detach ourselves from the societal norms, we should retain the right to decide for ourselves. The decisions should not be to impress other people but to ensure we do what is right for everyone as well as ourselves.
Works Cited
"Could I rationally act on my maxim in the PSW?" KANTIAN ETHICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2017.
Cavalier, Robert Philosophy Department Carnegie Mellon. "Utilitarian Theories." Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy. N.p., 2002. Web. 07 May 2017.
