Case #4: Marriage, Sex, and Procreation

Case #4: Marriage, Sex, and Procreation Worksheet

Descriptive Dimension

How would each of the authors you read for today describe the purpose or ends of marriage? How would each of these authors describe the human body? How would each of these authors describe human sexuality? Are their descriptions accurate? Are they complete? Are they inconclusive?

Normative Dimension

What if any goods does marriage bring about? Are there one or many goods involved in human sexual life? Are these bodily, emotional, or some other kind of good? Are these goods ever in conflict or are they always harmoniously linked? Does one have to order these goods according to some specific principle if they are not to conflict? Will they always inevitably conflict?

Practical Dimension

How, if at all, does one measure the success of one's moral decision making with regard to sex and marriage? Are one's practical judgments with respect to choices about sex and married life always one's own private choices or are these arrived at through discernment with others? Which others?

Fundamental Dimension

In what respect is one free in one's sexuality? How if at all, do one's past sexual behaviors affect one's character and one's future choices? Does taking the arguments of others about the proper use of one's body or the meaning of marriage make one more or less free?

Sources for Discernment

Thinking through each of these readings, and according to the dimensions listed above, what reasons are given in support of the arguments made? Are the reasons based in scripture? Common sense? Speculative reason? Personal experience? Are the reasons distinctly religious or not?

Citation: Clairmont, D. (2007, May 18). Case #4: Marriage, Sex, and Procreation. Retrieved June 19, 2013, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/theology/introduction-to-catholic-moral-theology/case-studies/case-4-marriage-sex-and-procreation.