The Natural Law Part IX

Why do I need anything but conscience?

Reason is implanted in us by God so we will know what our proper end is. What is conscience and how does it walk hand in hand with reason—either against or for? Double effect is when some action can have both a good and bad effect. Every year on January 22nd you can find people in Washington, D.C., gathered around the Washington Mall. They are doing one of two things: either praying for the end of abortion in this country and this world or they are praying in thanksgiving to God for allowing abortion in this country and this world. Both cannot be true. One has to be false. To be truly free one must be in the “Truth”. Truth is the condition of freedom. Conforming to truth of your car gives you the “freedom” to use that car. If you abuse that freedom and put water in the gas tank you no longer are free to use that car—the car won’t run on water.

The Natural Law is the story of how things work. In ‘Veritas Splendour’ John Paul II states that morality and faith cannot be separated from the Law of God. Then how does ‘conscience’ play into everything? Conscience is an act of judgment. It is a faculty of your intellect to judge the objective rightness or wrongness of a particular act.

One of the major points that John Paul II made in Veritas Splendour and Benedict XVI confirmed is necessity of freedom being connected to the truth and the necessity of conscience being regarded as a judgment as to the objective rightness or wrongness of an act rather than just a decision.

In a proper interpretation of conscience one is making a judgment as to whether an act is right or wrong in accordance with an objective standard. If you are a relativist than conscience becomes just your will, your decision, with no relationship to truth. Both Popes have pointed out that that is contrary to authentic freedom.

So therefore understanding forming a conscience must be very important (just like buying a car, how would one go about doing that?) There are two steps involving your conscience in making any type of moral decision. The first is a well formed conscience, the second an informed conscience. And that is the great advantage with the Magesterium of the Church. The Magesterium of the Church is the teaching authority of the Church and is in existence to interpret the Natural Law.

One must follow his or her conscience if it’s clear.

If one is in doubt whether and action is right or wrong one should take the safer course. And if one cannot resolve the doubt than one must follow the safer course (if I do or think that an act of theft and say it’s good, that is “false”. Conversely the reverse is true).

Double effect of conscience—one good and one bad. Can one take two actions? A guy comes at me with a knife and the only way to save my life is pull out my gun and shoot him. Can I do it? There are only two elements that condone taking a life, a just war and capital punishment, and both are heavily restricted in moral terms by the teaching of the Church. I’m not obligated to hold my life more cheaply than his (the dude with the knife). My intent has to be to save my life, not the intent of killing him. Another case of Double Effect: ectopic pregnancy or cancer of the uterus; to save the life of the mother the womb has to be removed first with the effect of the baby dying. Is it moral? Yes. There are four reasons or requirements:
a) The action is good
b) There is sufficient justification of action
c) The bad effect is not the intent of the action
d) The good effect is the intent of the action.

Generally civil and criminal law does not apply to double effect. You are responsible for the possible consequences of your voluntary action. Assisted suicide? Can the state prevent it? Yes, because the intent of the assisting doctor is always to cause death. The state can forbid assisted suicide but allow palliative care (double effect) is legitimate even though it may cause death. To relieve pain even though that relief may cause a shortening of the patients life has all four of the above requirements. Intent is everything and may sometimes be difficult to determine. Euthanasia is moving beyond the Natural Law because of intent.