Aquinas Ordered To The Common Good Analysis

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Human law must always be ordered to the common good which commands all virtuous actions. Any and all virtue can be ordered to either the private or public good. Aquinas provides the example of courage and how courageous acts could either “preserve the political community or [uphold] the rights of one’s friends” (Regan, 63). Law commands courage for the purpose of preserving the political community and upholding the rights of the neighboring men and other like purposes. Since there is no virtue that could not be, in one way or another, ordered to the common good, every virtue is commanded by human law because all law ordered to the common good. By commanding every virtue, human laws do not necessitate every many to have every virtue. Men need …show more content…

Historically, these abortions were performed to save the life of the mother (Aries, “The Politics of Science”). These situations utilize abortion as a means to an end but are not murders. Aquinas would agree to this judgment because “it is natural for everything to keep itself in existence as far as possible...since they have a higher obligation to safeguard their own lives than the life of another” (Regan, 170). Although these therapeutic abortions are employed as a means to an end, they are not always murders. Just as a person who acts moderately in self-defense is not guilty of murder although their actions killed another, a mother who chooses her own life over her child’s is not guilty of murder. In both cases, the higher obligation to save one’s own life is paramount to the life of another. However, if a therapeutic abortion is performed although there are other viable options that would allow both the mother and the fetus to live, the therapeutic abortion is murder. The presence of other viable options makes the therapeutic abortion murder because “it is unlawful to use greater force than necessary to defend one’s life” (Regan, 170). Thus therapeutic abortion is murder in cases where other options are …show more content…

Just as in unintended killings, there are ways in which indirect abortion is and is not murder. Spontaneous abortions, commonly known as miscarriages, are fetal deaths that are not willfully induced. These fetal deaths can occur due to a number of unpreventable genetic disorders and defects within the fetus or even disorders and illnesses of the mother (Dulay, “Spontaneous Abortion”). If such reasons were the cause of the death of the fetus, the spontaneous and indirect abortion is not murder. However, substance abuse of cocaine, drugs, alcohol, and the like also have the potential to induce a spontaneous abortion (Dulay, “Spontaneous Abortion”). Since one ought to avoid such a vice, spontaneous abortions that result from substance abuse are

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