Exam practice
There are various types of questions you may get asked:
- You may get asked to explain Natural Law, or an aspect of it.
- You may be required to evaluate the theory or compare it to another theory.
- You may be asked to apply Natural Law to one of the issues studied.
The following are AS exam questions written by OCR:
(a) Explain how the principles of Natural Law might be applied to decisions about fertility treatment. [33]
(b) ‘Every adult has the right to become a parent.’ Discuss. [17]
(a) Explain how a follower of Natural Law might respond to issues raised by abortion. [33]
(b) ‘A Natural Law approach is the best approach to abortion.’ Discuss. [17]
This question is from the January 2005 AS Ethics 1 paper:
(a) Explain the Natural Law Theory. [33]
(b) 'The Natural Law theory has no serious weaknesses.' Discuss. [17]
This is from the January 2005 Foundation paper:
(a) Explain what is meant by 'natural' in Natural Law. [33]
(b) 'Natural Law leads to unjust decisions.' Discuss. [17]
This is from the June 2005 Foundation paper:
(a) Explain what is meant by Natural Law. [33]
(b) 'Natural Law is a very fair way of making ethical decisions.' Discuss. [17]
This question came up in the Ethics 1 AS paper, January 2006:
(a) E xplain the s trengths of the Natural Law theory. [33]
(b) To what extent could a believer in Natural Law accept embryo research? [17]
This AS question came up in June 2006:
(a) Explain how a follower of Natural Law might approach the issue of abortion. [33]
(b) ‘A woman has the right to choose an abortion.’ Discuss. [17]
This is from the June 2006 Ethics 2 A2 paper:
'Natural Law is the most reliable approach when making judgments about sex and relationships.' Discuss. [45]
This AS question is from January 2007:
(a) Explain how a follower of Natural Law might respond to issues raised by genetic engineering. [33]
(b) ‘Genetic engineering is “playing God”.’ Discuss. [17]
This is from June 2007:
(a) Explain the main strengths of Natural Law theory. [33]
(b) ‘Natural Law theory is the best approach to moral decision making.’ Discuss. [17]
(teken from the OCR website)
We now have an interactive diagram showing how to answer an ethics exam question, The 'structure' of the paragraph will be different for 'ethical theory' questions, but the basic principles are the same. Try filling it in yourself and print out the completed diagram.
