Situation Ethics

Situation ethics is a position that holds that moral decision making is contextual or situational. It understands moral rules not as directives but as guidelines that are applicable in most situations but not all and that themselves may change or be modified over time because of their usefulness or lack thereof in varied situations. Ethical judgments must be made within the context of the entirety of the situation, and all normative features of a situation must be viewed as a whole. The guiding framework for moral decision making is stated variously as that of acting in the most loving way or acting to maximize harmony and reduce discord or to enrich human existence.

Situation ethics was developed by an Anglican theologian, Joseph Fletcher, in the mid-1960s ...