Discussion
Project: Identifying Ethical Questions
and Defining Ethics
Try
to decide which of the following questions are ethical questions. In some cases it may not be clear whether or
not a question is an ethical one. For
example, if I asked "Should I take that job they offered me at the
bank?" I would most likely be asking a question about whether or not
taking the job would be a good career move.
But in some situations (say, if I thought the bank was an unethical
organization) it could be an ethical question.
So try to sort the questions into three categories: 1. clearly ethical;
2. clearly not ethical; 3. ethical or not ethical depending on the
circumstances or on how you interpret the question.
1) Should
abortion continue to be legal in Minnesota?
2) Do the
majority of Minnesotans favor legal abortions?
3) Should
abortions be performed only by licenced M.D.'s, or could a nurse handle the
job?
4) Who was
the greatest third baseman of all time?
5) Who was
the greatest President of the United States
6) Should I
inform on a co-worker who is stealing from the company?
7) Is there a
company policy that says, "Employees must report stealing by fellow
workers"?
8) Is there
anything wrong with mixing chlorine bleach with ammonia to clean floors?
9) Is there
anything wrong with mixing truth with falsehood to make a sale?
10) Is there
anything wrong with killing my children if I think they are making too much
noise?
11) Aren't
there some cultures where cannibalism is thought to be perfectly O.K.?
12) Is there
really anything wrong with eating human flesh, if the person died of natural
causes?
13) Was the
United States justified in attacking Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001?
14) Was the
Supreme Court justified in overturning the Georgia capital punishment law?
15) Should I
buy a sailboat, or set the money aside for my children's education?
16) Should I
buy a sailboat, or use the money to get a fancier car?
17) Should I
spend all my money on myself, or should I give some of it to charity?
18) Should I
go to the movies tonight, or stay home and read a book?
19) Can a
professional code of ethics contain unethical principles?
20) Should a
man open a car door for a woman?
21) Is it
wrong to wear furs with tennis shoes?
22) Is it
wrong to wear furs?
23) Do longer
jail sentences deter crime?
24) Is the
death penalty a just punishment for certain kinds of crimes?
25) Does
exercise prevent heart attacks?
26) Does
exercise build good character?
27) Is there
intelligent life elsewhere in the universe?
28) Which is
better, chocolate or vanilla?
29) Which is
better, telling a lie or hurting a friend's feelings?
30) Which is
better music, country/western or jazz?
Now,
try to decide if there is anything that all the ethical questions have in
common, which the non-ethical questions don't have. If so, what is it? If
not, is there some other way that you could explain what distinguishes the
ethical questions from the non-ethical ones?