Secondary 5 Ethics And Religious Studies Practice Paper: Ultimate Concern And Suffering, Religious Traditions And Texts, Ethical Theories, Bioethics, Environmental And Business Ethics, Case Analysis (100 Marks)

Secondary 5 Ethics and Religious Studies Practice Paper: ultimate concern and suffering, religious traditions and texts, ethical theories, bioethics, environmental and business ethics, case analysis (100 marks)

2026-11-14

Ethics and Religious Studies – S5

S5 Ethics practice paper: ultimate concern, theodicies, religious traditions, ethical theories, bioethics, environmental and business ethics, case analysis, answers.

Paper details　S5 Ethics and Religious Studies practice paper with 24 parts and worked answers: ultimate concern and the problem of suffering, four religious traditions, consequentialist duty and virtue ethics, bioethics, environmental and business ethics.

Section A Religion and life: ultimate concern, suffering and religious experience

Answer all parts. Support every claim with concepts from religious and ethical studies.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	Explain Paul Tillich’s idea of ultimate concern and give one concrete example of how it shapes a person’s priorities.	Answer: Ultimate concern is what a person commits to unconditionally as the highest value of life; it is not one interest among many but the centre that orders all other values. Example: a dying patient treats reconciliation with his family as the highest value, so he stops chasing costly treatment and chooses to spend his last days at home; the choice shows how ultimate concern reorders other goals. (2 marks definition, 2 marks example)
2	The existence of suffering is often seen as a challenge to religious belief. Explain three strategies used by religious traditions to respond to suffering, with one example each.	Answer: First, Christian theodicy: suffering arises from human free choice, and God can turn suffering into a path of growth and redemption. Second, the Buddhist view of karma and rebirth: suffering results from earlier action, and the Four Noble Truths set out the way to end it. Third, the Daoist view of nature: follow the way of heaven, treat suffering as no anomaly of the cosmos, and transform the mind through nourishing life and seeing things as equal. (1 mark explanation and 1 mark example each)
3	Explain the three features of the holy described by Rudolf Otto, and why religious experience is difficult to express fully in language.	Answer: The three features are: the mysterious, an object wholly other that everyday concepts cannot exhaust; the daunting, the creature feeling and trembling before what is absolutely superior; and the fascinating, an object that also draws the person by its value. Religious experience resists speech because its object lies beyond ordinary categories, so language can only point to it by analogy, negation and symbol, and every description remains limited. (1 mark per feature, 1 for the explanation)
4	A hospice survey of 250 patients recorded their condition after religious support: anxiety fell in 185, showed no clear change in 45, and rose in 20. Calculate each percentage as a whole number, then evaluate the role and the limits of religious support for this group.	Answer: Anxiety fell in 74 per cent (185 out of 250), showed no clear change in 18 per cent, and rose in 8 per cent, and the three add to 100 per cent. Evaluation: most patients improved, so religious support does real work in emotional settling and rebuilding meaning; yet anxiety rose in 8 per cent, so support must be individualised, religious resources cannot be assumed to suit everyone, and medical and psychological care must run alongside. (3 marks calculation, 2 marks evaluation)

Section B Religious traditions and texts: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Daoism

When comparing traditions, use each tradition’s own terms accurately and avoid mixing levels of doctrine.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	Explain the Christian doctrine of justification by faith, and how it differs from salvation by works.	Answer: Justification by faith means that the standing of peace with God is given by God’s free grace through trust in Christ, not earned by keeping the law. Salvation by works holds that a person obtains salvation through moral achievement or religious merit. The difference is that the first grounds salvation in God’s grace and treats good works as fruit of a justified life, while the second grounds it in human performance. (2 marks explanation, 2 marks contrast)
6	List the five pillars of Islam and explain the religious and ethical meaning of fasting and almsgiving.	Answer: The five pillars are the declaration of faith, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage. Fasting through the daylight hours of Ramadan trains self-restraint, lets the believer taste the deprivation of the poor, and expresses obedience and devotion, joining spiritual discipline with social compassion. Almsgiving gives a fixed share of wealth each year to the needy, treating wealth as a trust and expressing social justice and solidarity. (2 marks for the five pillars, 1 mark for each of the two explained)
7	Explain the content of the Four Noble Truths, and the link between the second and the third.	Answer: The Four Noble Truths are suffering, its arising, its cessation and the path: existence carries the pain of unsatisfactoriness; its cause is craving and grasping; cessation means that suffering can end, which is nirvana; the path is the Noble Eightfold Path, the method of ending it. The link is causal: because suffering arises from craving and grasping, removing the cause brings it to an end, so cessation is not an added gift but the natural result of the conditions falling away. (2 marks content, 2 marks link)
8	A scripture has 60 chapters with 12 verses each, and a reading plan asks believers to finish the whole book within a year. Calculate the total number of verses, the days needed at 4 verses a day and at 6 verses a day, and the difference, then evaluate what fixed daily reading contributes to religious life.	Answer: The book has 720 verses (60 times 12). At 4 verses a day it takes 180 days; at 6 verses a day it takes 120 days; the difference is 60 days. Evaluation: fixed reading sets scripture inside the daily rhythm, builds continuity and keeps a community in step, so believers stay in touch with the text amid busy lives; but reading for a quota easily becomes formal, so it must join understanding, reflection and practice, or much reading brings no change. (3 marks calculation, 2 marks evaluation)

Section C Ethical theories: consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics

State the criterion of the theory you use and reason from it; do not simply assert a conclusion.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	A district considers three welfare schemes, measured in utility points. Scheme A benefits 200 people at 3 points each and costs 120 people at 1 points each. Scheme B benefits 150 people at 4 points each and costs 80 people at 2 points each. Scheme C benefits 90 people at 5 points each and costs 30 people at 3 points each. Compute the net utility of each scheme (total benefit minus total cost), choose the best, and explain how act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism differ in reaching that decision.	Answer: A: benefit 600, cost 120, net 480. B: benefit 600, cost 160, net 440. C: benefit 450, cost 90, net 360. Scheme A has the highest net utility (480), ahead of B by 40 points. Act utilitarianism calculates consequences case by case and picks the largest net utility now; rule utilitarianism asks whether general compliance with a rule maximises overall utility over time, so even where a single lie would raise utility, it may be ruled out because eroding trust harms the long run. (3 marks calculation, 2 marks contrast)
10	State two formulations of Kant’s categorical imperative and test them against lying to a pursuer in order to save a friend.	Answer: First, the formula of universal law: act only on a maxim you could will to become a universal law. Second, the formula of humanity: treat persons always as ends, never merely as means. Test: if the maxim of lying were universalised, promises and speech would lose credibility and the maxim destroys itself, so it cannot be universalised; and the lie uses the pursuer as a tool for one’s purpose, stripping him of the rational capacity to know the facts. Kant concludes that deception must be refused even where the consequences look unfavourable. (1 mark per formulation, 2 marks test)
11	Explain Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean and practical wisdom, and one major difference from consequentialism.	Answer: The mean holds that virtue lies between two extremes, as courage lies between cowardice and recklessness, and it is fixed by reason in the particular situation rather than by arithmetic. Practical wisdom is the capacity to discern what is good in a concrete case and to act on it, which is what allows the mean to be applied rightly. The main difference: consequentialism judges acts by the total consequences they produce, while virtue ethics first asks what kind of person one should become and stresses character, motive and habit rather than a calculation of outcomes. (1 mark mean, 1 mark practical wisdom, 2 marks difference)
12	A hospital trialled temporary concealment of bad news with 60 patients: short-term anxiety fell in 45, while 12 missed treatment decisions because of the delay. Calculate the two percentages as whole numbers, then give one judgement from deontology and one from consequentialism.	Answer: Anxiety fell in 75 per cent (45 out of 60) and 20 per cent (12 out of 60) missed treatment decisions. Deontology: concealment removes knowledge and autonomy, treating the patient as an object to be managed rather than an end, so short-term comfort cannot justify it unless the patient has clearly asked not to be told. Consequentialism: weigh total outcomes, and if the benefit of lower short-term anxiety is smaller than the harm of 12 patients delaying treatment, net utility is negative and staged disclosure should replace concealment. (2 marks percentages, 1 mark per judgement)

Section D Bioethics: abortion, euthanasia, organ transplant and resource allocation

On life issues, present the reasons on both sides before you judge.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	A health system compares two treatments. Treatment A gives 5 years of survival at a quality weight of 0.8 and costs 400000 dollars; treatment B gives 8 years at a quality weight of 0.6 and costs 384000 dollars. Compute the QALYs and the cost per QALY, judge which is the better use of resources, and state three ethical objections to allocating by QALY.	Answer: A: 5 times 0.8 gives 4.0 QALYs, so 400000 divided by 4.0 is 100000 dollars per QALY. B: 8 times 0.6 gives 4.8 QALYs, so 384000 divided by 4.8 is 80000 dollars per QALY. B costs 20000 dollars less per QALY and is the better use of resources. Objections: first, turning quality of life into a number can systematically devalue the lives of the chronically ill and disabled; second, counting only measurable benefit pushes rare and costly patients to the margins; third, it ignores fairness, equality and procedural justice, so minority needs may always come last. (3 marks calculation, 2 marks judgement and objections)
14	Distinguish active from passive euthanasia and voluntary from non-voluntary euthanasia, and explain the main slippery slope objection to legalisation.	Answer: Active euthanasia ends life by an act, such as a lethal injection; passive euthanasia withdraws or withholds life-sustaining treatment and lets the condition take its course. Voluntary means the patient is competent and has clearly asked; non-voluntary means the patient lacks capacity and others decide. The slippery slope objection holds that once voluntary cases are allowed the boundary will slide towards non-voluntary cases and towards the frail and the weary of living, because the criteria are vague and cost pressure and family burden push the line, so the practice should be resisted as an institution even if a single case looks acceptable. (2 marks for the four categories, 2 marks for the slope)
15	State the strongest argument for and against abortion, and explain how each side’s definition of a person shapes its conclusion.	Answer: The strongest argument for is bodily autonomy: pregnancy uses a woman’s body continuously, and forcing it to continue treats her as a means to sustain the fetus, so before the fetus is a person she may decide. The strongest argument against is potential personhood: the fetus has the intrinsic potential to become a person, and if personhood grounds rights, potential personhood grounds protection that cannot be set aside at will. The dispute turns on the definition of a person: those who require consciousness, rationality or sentience allow early abortion, while those who hold that life begins at conception reject it in principle. (1.5 marks per argument, 1 mark on the definition)
16	A hospital ranks kidney transplant candidates by a score: months waited times 2, tissue match times 30, expected years of survival times 4. Candidate A has waited 18 months, matches at 0.9 and expects 6 years; B has waited 12 months, matches at 0.95 and expects 9 years; C has waited 24 months, matches at 0.8 and expects 4 years. Compute and rank the scores, then discuss the conflict between first come first served and maximum benefit.	Answer: A: 18 times 2 is 36, 0.9 times 30 is 27.0, 6 times 4 is 24, total 87.0. B: 12 times 2 is 24, 0.95 times 30 is 28.5, 9 times 4 is 36, total 88.5. C: 24 times 2 is 48, 0.8 times 30 is 24.0, 4 times 4 is 16, total 88.0. Rank order: B at 88.5, then C at 88.0, then A at 87.0. Conflict: first come first served protects fairness and predictability and rewards waiting, but may favour a patient with a worse prognosis; maximum benefit gives the organ to the likeliest long survivor and raises total benefit yet feels unjust to the longest waiter. A workable compromise publishes the weights, sets a minimum waiting floor and protects long waiters. (2 marks calculation, 2 marks discussion)

Section E Environmental and business ethics: stewardship, sustainability and corporate responsibility

Show the working and the units in calculations, and consider both beneficiaries and those harmed in essays.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	Explain three approaches in environmental ethics, anthropocentric, biocentric and ecocentric, and give each one’s position on developing a wetland.	Answer: Anthropocentrism counts only or mainly human interests, so the wetland may be developed but the long-term human losses such as flood control and fisheries must be counted. Biocentrism holds that every living individual has moral standing, so development must show it harms no other species, and damage to wetland life is a reason against. Ecocentrism extends moral concern to the whole ecosystem, stresses interdependence and system integrity, and treats the wetland’s regulating function as irreplaceable, so it objects in principle. (1 mark per approach, 1 mark for the positions)
18	Explain the doctrinal resources each of Christianity, Buddhism and Daoism offers for environmental protection, and one limit of each.	Answer: Christianity centres on stewardship: creation belongs to God and humans answer for its care rather than consuming at will, with the limit that the word for dominion in Genesis is easily read as a licence to dominate. Buddhism centres on dependent arising and non-harming: all things condition one another, so harming the environment harms oneself and other beings, with the limit that it stresses personal practice and is weaker on institutions and policy. Daoism centres on following nature: conform to natural patterns and reject artificial forcing, with the limit that its critique of technology translates poorly into concrete environmental standards. (1 mark per tradition, 1 mark for the limits together)
19	A household uses 4200 kWh of electricity a year at 0.55 kg of carbon dioxide per kWh, and travels 18000 km a year at 0.12 kg per km. Compute the annual total, then the amount to be cut and the new total if emissions must fall by 15 per cent within a year.	Answer: Electricity: 4200 times 0.55 gives 2310.0 kg. Travel: 18000 times 0.12 gives 2160.0 kg. The annual total is 4470.0 kg. A cut of 15 per cent means 670.5 kg, leaving 3799.5 kg. Feasible steps include efficient appliances and public transport, with monthly checks against actual meter readings. (3 marks calculation, 1 mark measures)
20	A factory may spend 320000 dollars on safety upgrades. Without them there is a 25 per cent chance of an accident costing 1800000 dollars in compensation and lost output. Compute the expected loss, judge whether the investment pays, and explain how shareholder theory and stakeholder theory differ on this case.	Answer: Expected loss: 25 per cent times 1800000 gives 450000 dollars. Spending 320000 dollars avoids 450000 dollars of expected loss, a net saving of 130000 dollars, so the investment pays. Shareholder theory holds that the firm should pursue profit for owners within the law, so safety is judged by cost and benefit; stakeholder theory holds that workers’ bodily safety is itself a moral constraint, that risk may not be traded for money even when expected loss is below cost, and that workers have rights to information and participation. (2 marks calculation, 1 mark judgement, 1 mark contrast)

Section F Case analysis and exam strategy: positions, arguments and timing

In case questions define the dispute first, then analyse with theory, then state a defensible position.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	Case one: a school bans religious head coverings in physical education lessons on grounds of safety and uniformity. Analyse the rule with two ethical theories and propose a reasonable way to handle it.	Answer: The dispute is between freedom of religious expression and the school’s need for safety and order. A deontological approach: religious expression belongs to freedom of conscience, and a student should not have to give up her religious identity to receive an education, so the rule must show that no less restrictive means exists. A consequentialist approach: compare the safety risk to all students with the cost to the few excluded, and if no evidence shows the covering creates real danger, net utility is negative. A reasonable handling replaces a blanket ban with safety standards on material and fitting, allows alternatives, and publishes the criteria. (1 mark framing, 2 marks theories, 1 mark proposal)
22	Case two: a teenager’s parents refuse a blood transfusion on religious grounds while doctors say it would save the boy’s life. Analyse both sets of reasons and judge whether a court should intervene.	Answer: The parents: their teaching forbids transfusion, they hold the right to decide a child’s medical care by their faith, and the family is where values are handed on. The doctors: saving life is a basic duty, the child may not be able to judge for himself, and delay makes death irreversible. Judgement: a court should intervene, because the child’s best interests need independent protection and religious freedom cannot extend to imposing irreversible harm on a third party; the intervention should be confined to the specific decision and should require a medically acceptable alternative, so that the faith as a whole is not dismissed as unreasonable. (2 marks both sides, 2 marks judgement)
23	Explain the four-step answer structure of describe, explain, evaluate and conclude, and show how to gain full marks on a five-mark question.	Answer: Describe: state the facts and terms of the case or concept accurately and hold back the verdict. Explain: give the underlying principle and show the reasoning with theory or doctrine, which normally carries the most marks. Evaluate: give reasons on both sides, state the strongest version of the opposing view, answer it and note the limits. Conclude: state a clear position with conditions, for example what would change the judgement. On a five-mark question the split is 1 for description, 2 for explanation, 1.5 for evaluation and 0.5 for conclusion, using the subject’s technical terms at every step. (1 mark per step)
24	This paper carries 100 marks in 60 minutes. Compute the average time per mark in seconds, the minutes available for a 17-mark section and a 16-mark section, and the suggested time for a 5-mark and a 4-mark part, then name the two commonest ways candidates lose marks.	Answer: Each mark is worth 36 seconds (60 times 60 divided by 100). A 17-mark section takes about 10.2 minutes and a 16-mark section about 9.6 minutes; a 5-mark part about 3.0 minutes and a 4-mark part about 2.4 minutes. Two common losses: giving a position without theoretical support, so the answer stays at common sense level; and poor timing, spending too long on early long answers and rushing the high-value parts at the end. (2 marks timing, 2 marks losses)

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