Situation Ethics was brought about by Joseph Fletcher in his book "Situation ethics" In 1966 He claimed that the

current legalistic system of his day had lost touch with the time and was too prescribing. He felt there was no black or white yes or no/ right or wrong for any given situation. He believed in the teachings of Jesus telling people that they should do what is situationally right. Joseph Fletcher came up with 4 working principles; y Positivism- Positivism is always to look at the circumstance from a view of faith (The way that God would have wanted). y Personalism- Personalism is to look at each situation personally and look upon the people involved individually. y Pragmatism- Pragmatism is to do the thing that works. y Relativism- Relativism is to do what is relatively right under the circumstance or scenario. From these, 6 working principals can be drawn. by fulfilling these principals you are in turn fulfilling the first four for the first four are the pillar for which these stand on. The six principals are: y y y y y y There is only one thing intrinsically good, love. Christians should always act out of love and base their decisions on love. Love and justice are the same, for love is justice distributed. Only the end of love can justify the means. Love in situations is made situationally not prescriptively. Love wills the good of others regardless of your feelings towards them.

The weaknesses include: y y y y y y Sometimes you have to do what appears to be the least loving thing to the loving thing. For example pulling the plug on someone in a coma. It is ambiguous. People can define love differently. There is no black and white right and wrong basis for love. It is claimed to coincide with the bible (Jesus teachings May the first person without sin cast the first stone and Do onto others as you would have done onto you).

The strengths include: y y y y y Its flexible. Its non prescriptive. (non legalistic)Takes the individual situation into account instead of blindly following the rules. It can cross cultural boundaries in the fact everyone can use it. It is not as coinciding with the bible as some people may think due to the fact that if the circumstance is just then it maybe contradicts the bibles teachings.