The Theory of Natural law.

   In the Natural law approach, an action is either natural or unnatural depending and is judged on that basis and so does not depend on results for its moral justification. Therefore an action can be deemed as good in itself even if the end result is suffering for the people/person involved. There is also the point that because it is based on reason and not revelation it is seen as discoverable by anyone whether they are religious or not and therefore for the same reason it is universal and not culturally conditioned to a certain group of people.

   This argument can also claim to have an advantage over those arguments that are based on expected outcomes due to the fact that they cannot always be predicted. Natural law instead says that an action is right or wrong based on what the action is and not its consequences. It could also say that because it is rationally based, it does not have the problem of having to take into account the feelings of the person concerned, which can change; it is therefore useful because the issue of right and wrong remains fixed causing less confusion and more stability.

   One example of where natural law can be used when talking about the Catholic church’s view on sex. They would say that the ‘final’ cause of sex was the procreation of a child or children and the ‘efficient’ cause is the attraction and stimulation that make the act possible. Therefore having sex to produce children is natural and would therefore be seen as morally right. However, through the eyes of natural law, using contraception during sex would be seen as preventing the natural goal of the sperm (to fertilise the egg) and so would be morally wrong. Other acts such as homosexuality would also therefore be seen to be wrong and unnatural, as the ‘final end’ is not met and the cause is not met.

   This is not the only problem faced into today’s society when looking at natural law. If a person was homosexually inclined due to, for example, a difference in his or her genetic make-up, then it would seem not to be that person’s fault, however according to natural law, that person would be morally wrong to practice what they feel to be natural because of the fact that it would seem to be unnatural to the design of human beings. Another problem arises when someone is trying to determine what the ‘right’ use of reason is when there are genuine differences of opinion as to what is good in particular situations. For example, reason may be used to plan a murder or it may be used to decide to be honest, but only the second case is being used ‘rightly’.

   Even the most basic questions becomes complex such as “How do we know what is natural?” and “What if religious teachings conflict the principles of natural law?”, an example of this being Jesus teaching humans to turn the other cheek, but under the ideologies of natural law a person would seem to have the right to self-preservation. However some questions can also be put down using the Natural law theory such as, “Is a celibate priesthood wrong?” People may ask this because the end cause of life is to have created another generation in order for the world to carry on, however natural law would say that a celibate priesthood is ok due to the fact that the priest is helping people worship God and that there are some people that just don’t get married so this would not be seen as wrong. Another question being on the topic of sex after child bearing years. Again this would not be morally wrong because the final cause would probably already have been met and offspring would have been produced.

   All in all, natural law is a perfectly good theory. It’s main weakness however, is that it relies on us as humans to be rational beings and that we live in a world that was designed by a rational and purposeful Creator and seeing as there will always be moments when not every human will be rational, it is at these times that natural law will seem to fail and as with any theory, there will always be some questions that are answered in a way that would seem unintelligible to those involved.