Ethical absolutes and situational sensitivity : response an utilitarian argument

Medicine raises some of the most perplexing theoretical difficulties in ethics. Recently, a large amount of literature on the issues of abortion and infanticide has generated debates on what to do in cases of severely handicapped fetuses and newborns. The discussions have raised questions about the adequacy of absolutisic ethical systems such as Evangelical views which support the Sanctity of Life principle. Some argue against absolutism on the grounds that it cannot adequately deal with the many situational factors (including consent, intention, and consequences--the medical prognoses) that must be taken into consideraton in decisions about the severely handicapped. In this paper, we shall seek to discover whether or not this criticism is well-founded. Is an absolutist ethic which seeks to place the Sanctity of Life principle at the center of these discussions applicable to the infinitely varied cases faced by obstetricians and pediatricians