Applied ethics - sexual ethics: premarital and extramarital sex, homosexuality and contraception, and how Natural Law, Situation Ethics, Kantian ethics and utilitarianism apply to them.

What this dot point is asking

This WJEC theme is applied ethics, applying the normative theories to sexual ethics: premarital and extramarital sex, homosexuality, and contraception. You need to know how Natural Law, Situation Ethics, Kantian ethics and utilitarianism, alongside religious teaching, approach these issues, and to evaluate the results. AO1 wants accurate application of the theories; AO2 wants a reasoned judgement on which approach is most convincing.

The answer

The issues and the religious background

Natural Law and religious teaching

Applied to the issues, traditional Natural Law (and much Catholic teaching) condemns premarital and extramarital sex (sex outside marriage), opposes contraception (which separates sex from its procreative purpose, as in the encyclical "Humanae Vitae"), and regards homosexual acts as contrary to the natural purpose of sex. It is absolutist: the rules hold regardless of circumstances. Its strength is a clear, principled account of the meaning of sex; its weakness is rigidity and a contested assumption about a fixed natural purpose.

Situation Ethics, Kant and utilitarianism

• Situation Ethics. With agape as the only rule, there are no fixed prohibitions: premarital sex, contraception or a faithful same-sex relationship may be right if they are the most loving course in the situation. It is relativist and person-centred.
• Kantian ethics. Judging by duty and the formula of ends, Kant condemns treating a sexual partner merely as a means (so deception, exploitation and using a person purely for pleasure are wrong), and values consistency and respect for persons; a consensual relationship that respects the other's dignity can be acceptable, though Kant himself took conservative views on some acts.
• Utilitarianism. Judging by consequences for happiness, it permits sexual acts that maximise wellbeing and harm no one, weighing pleasure, the avoidance of harm (disease, unwanted pregnancy, betrayal), and effects on others; it has no objection in principle to contraception or same-sex relationships.

Examples in context

Model paragraph (which approach best handles contraception?). Contraception is a revealing test case, because the theories divide sharply and for instructive reasons. Natural Law, in its traditional Catholic form, condemns artificial contraception because it severs the act of sex from its procreative purpose, and this position is principled and consistent, but it rests on the contested claim that frustrating a natural function is inherently wrong, and most people, including many religious believers, reject the conclusion as failing to fit the realities of family planning, health and responsible parenthood. Situation Ethics and utilitarianism reach the opposite verdict easily: contraception can be the most loving choice and clearly tends to maximise wellbeing by enabling couples to plan families and prevent harm, which matches widespread modern moral intuition, though critics note that "the most loving thing" and "the greatest happiness" are vague and could in principle license much more. Kantian ethics is more neutral, focusing on whether persons are respected rather than on the biology of the act. A strong evaluation therefore argues that the consequentialist and situationist approaches fit contemporary attitudes to contraception better than traditional Natural Law, while conceding that Natural Law alone offers a substantive account of why sex might have a meaning beyond pleasure that the flexible theories risk losing.

Try this

Q1. On what grounds does Natural Law oppose contraception? [2 marks]

• Cue. It separates sex from its natural purpose of reproduction, frustrating the telos of the act (as in "Humanae Vitae").

Q2. How would Situation Ethics judge premarital sex? [2 marks]

• Cue. By agape: it may be right if it is the most loving course in the situation, since there are no fixed rules.

Q3. Evaluate the view that ethical theories give better guidance on sexual ethics than religious rules. [20 marks]

• What the marker wants. A balanced argument weighing flexible theories (Situation Ethics, utilitarianism, Kant) against the principled but rigid Natural Law and traditional teaching, with a reasoned judgement.