Religion and Medical Ethics

Anglican:

• don't accept it 
• Although do if:
  • if it is a risk to the mothers life
  • contraception from ****
  • baby born severely disabled

Methodist:

• against "abortion on demand"

Roman Catholic:

• believe life is sacred and should be treated with respect
• are againt it
• seen as a sin as the foetus has rights 

• Roman Catholic:
• surrogacy is NEVER acceptable
• embryos are not disposable commodities 
• AI and IVF is acceptable if no spare embryos are created 
• Methodist:
• it is right to research the causes of infertility and look for cures
• okay to create spare embryos
• against the concept of using a donor sperm or eggs 
• Anglican:
• surrogacy is NEVER acceptable 
• IVF, AID and AIH are acceptable
• fine to create spae embryos

All Christians would encourage adoption, "love thy neighbour" 

• Surrogacy
• womb leasing, can't carry the baby
• AID (artificial insemination by donor)
• donors sperm is chosen and inserted into females womb
• AIH (artificial insemination by husband)
• husbands sperm and inserted into females womb
• IVF (in virto fertilisation)
• test tube babies
• ovum (egg) and sperm in lab
• inserted into womb
• Egg Donation
• woman donates egg to another couple 
• fertilised with semen and transferred to wife's womb
• Embryo Donation
• ovum is fertilised by semen from donor
• everything is donated 

• Roman Catholics:
  • unacceptable
  • all life is sacred
  • God is the giver of life and created human life
  • every life has a purpose
  • God decides when life begins and ends
  • individuality is given by God
• Anglican:
  • unlawful by Human Fertilisation
  • theraputic cloning is ethical

• genetic engineering
• Concerns: unnatural, clone is not the same, freedom and individuality, rights
• theraputic cloning (or embryo cloning) - tissues are created not babies
• DNA cloning - multiple identical copies are made of a DNA sequence
• reproductive cloning - produce an animal that has the same DNA as the other animal 

• Roman Catholic:
  • don't bury people who have died as suicide is in the church grounds
  • life or death matters
  • not to murder
  • regarded as an act of disobedience
• Anglican:
  • accept those that commit suicide and their families should not be condemned 
  • affected by pyschological factors

• samaritans
• sanctity of life
• accept suicide is a dissatisfaction - agape
• accounts for over 1/5 of all deaths of young people
• Christians accept that suicide is not a deliberate rejection of life

• Passive Euthanasia: - decision is made to give no more life, saving medical intervention to a patient - turn off life support, can't carry out resuscitation
• Active Euthanasia: - medical staff take deliberate action to end the life of a patient 
• The Doctrine of Double Effect: - if an action is good but the effect and outcome is gying, it is legal, you've had the right intention, to do good. 
• Voluntary Euthanasia: - person wants to die and asks for help to do so, refuses medical treatment, refuses to eat, deciding to die
• Involuntary Euthanasia: - the person wants to live but is killed anyway, usually murder but not always, put out of suffering with no equipment 
• Non-voluntary Euthanasia: - person is incapable of making their wishes known, in a coma, too young, is senile, mentally retarded to a severe extent 
• Stewardship = responsibilty to take care of all life
• Ouantity of life = have an alloted number of days by God, how much time
• Quality of life = how you live your life 

• Anglican:
• it is important as a guiding principle that it upholds the sanctity of life
• doctors aren't seen to have an over-riding obligation to prolong life by all available means
• don't want to see others suffer 
• "treat others as you would like them to treat you" - look at suffering person themselves 
• Catholic:
• individuals need to accept the reality of death and prepare for it
• any action that intends to cause death as a relief of suffering is a "violation of the law of God"
• Sanctity of life as all life is God given
• don't believe in taking other peoples lives even if they don't want to die
• God gave man "dominion over every living thing" - shouldnt kill/harm it even if it is suffering
• The Hospice Movement = against, The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats teach Christians they have a responsibilty towards the sick. They believe that helping the sick is like helping Jesus.
• Provides an alternative for people who are terminally ill 

• Vivisection:the experimentation on animals for research and making sure the products are safe
• Laboratoty Tools: animals have painful experiments in laboratories across the world, given electric shocks, injected with disease, experimented with drugs, toxic chemicals or radiation. no anaesthetic is used
• Medical Research: experiments on animals for medical research are 71% unreliable - some products have passed animal tests but are unsafe on humans
• Product Testing: nearly all household and cosmetic products are tested on animals

• Christian Views:
  • animals are sacred - humans should show thoughts for all life, although, animals have no soul
  • humans have "dominion" over animals, animals should not be abused 
  • Christians believe that stewardship will be held to account for how they have acted 
  • Although, they believe that the use of animals for medical research is sometimes necessary 
• Roman Catholics:
  • experiments are acceptable if they are reasonable to improve the quality of health or save lives
  • acceptable to use animals for clothins and food 
  • people shouldn't give lots of care and attention when humans are suffering from starvation in other countries