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- MILESTONES, Page 99
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- DIED. Joseph Fletcher, 86, pioneer in biomedical ethics
- whose 1966 book, Situation Ethics: The New Morality, provoked
- spirited debate about modern theology; in Charlottesville, Va.
- In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy attacked the philosopher
- and Episcopal priest as "the red churchman" for his social
- activism on behalf of labor unions. In Situation Ethics Fletcher
- proposed a "new morality" based on the diminution of biblical
- absolutes of right and wrong. The only valid ethical test, he
- argued, is what God's love demands in each particular situation.
- While scholars criticized the concept as too vague, it struck
- a chord in a decade marked by rebellion against doctrinaire
- rules.
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