A consideration of whether Aquinas' Natural law promotes injustice

Para 1 (counter argument)

Natural law promotes justice. Natural law promotes equal treatment rather than bending to the whims of society. Natural law gives all the people the rights and responsibilities and this is fair. The virtue of justice is written right into the cardinal virtues.

Para 1 (argument)

NL promotes injustice. NL promotes discrimination such as sexual orientation. NL doesnt consider additional issues such as the quality of life in euthaniasia or the woman's right to choose in abortion. It forces people to form acts that are not beneficial towards them e.g. no abortion for a rape victim. It forces duties upon people such as dont kill in euthanasisa

Para 2 (counter argument)

NL is all encompassing. NL can be applied to all ethical issues inc modern ethical issues that arent covered in the bible e.g. genetic modification. Therefore NL can be applied to all ethical issues in a contemporary society

Para 2 (argument)

People are different. NL states that god made us all the same- with 5 primary precepts. Therefore, we all have the same purposes in life (the primary precepts) and thus can be judged by the same secondary precepts. This is an issue taken up by philosopher Gareth Moore. He claims people are different, we are affected by our culture and upbringing. Therefore, it is unjust to judge all people the same way when people are different

Para 3 (counter)

NL is universal, it is applied the same to all people at all times. This is an excellent basis for morality because everyone will be treated the same regardless of gender, race, culture e.g. abortion is wrong according to NL whether you're 16 or 30 black or white etc. It is the interests of justice that everyone follows the same rules as a society. It is just because it applies the same rules to everyone, no matter who they are

Para 3 (argument)

NL ignored any potential bad consequences of our actions. E.g. a NL secondary precept is that "contraception is wrong" because it breaks the primary precept of reproduction of the human species. However, the consequences of this is that poorer families, particularly in 3rd world countries, are having children they can't afford to bring up- thus creating greater poverty and suffering. NL ignores these bad consequences