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
had been offered the job as a bribe to get me to do something dishonest) 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) Should
the Twins have traded Bert Blyleven?
5) Should
I inform on a co-worker who is stealing from the company?
6) Is
there a company policy that says "Employees must report stealing by fellow
workers"?
7) Is there anything wrong with mixing
chlorine bleach with ammonia to clean floors?
8) Is
there anything wrong with mixing truth with falsehood to make a sale?
9) Is there anything wrong with killing my
children if I think they are making too much noise?
10) Aren't there some cultures where cannibalism
is thought to be perfectly O.K.?
11) Is
there really anything wrong with eating human flesh, if the person died of
natural causes?
12) Was the United States justified in
invading Panama in 1989?
13) Was the Supreme Court justified in
overturning the Georgia capital punishment law?
14) Should I buy a sailboat, or set the money
aside for my children's education?
15) Should I buy a sailboat, or use the money to get a fancier car?
16) Can a professional code of ethics contain
unethical principles?
17) Should a man open a car door for a woman?
18) Is it wrong to wear furs with tennis
shoes?
19) Is it wrong to wear furs?
20) Should I go to the movies tonight, or stay
home and read a book?
21) Do longer jail sentences deter crime?
22) Does exercise prevent heart attacks?
23) Does exercise build character?
24) Does
God exist?
25) Is Arctic explorer Wil Steger a true
American hero?
26) Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the
universe?
27) Which is better, chocolate or vanilla?
28) Which is better, telling a lie or hurting
a friend's feelings?
29) 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?