5C- Theoretical Approaches To Ethics



I have engaged with the subject of ethics in my previous two tasks and learnt that there are many different approaches and contexts to consider coming to a full understanding, as well as being able to apply principles of ethics to my professional practice.

Opinions can differ and vary on this subject which can sometimes be dependent on culture, religion, race or law. I believe that deciding on appropriate ethical responses to given situations is purely down to awareness, being aware of the situation and experience, the outcomes and ways in which you can decide and deal with appropriate ethical responses in certain situations. Ethics will always play a vital role in the workplace so having the correct knowledge and understanding the different approaches to take is supreme.

So what are ethics?

The BBC describe ethics as ‘ethics are a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is good for individuals and society’ and I believe that ethics are a set of guidelines we adhere to throughout life to establish equality. ‘Ethics has its roots in moral philosophy and is concerned about the right or the good way to carry out actions’ (Reader 5- pg7 History of Ethics)

I have looked at personal, professional and organizational ethics within my own place of work but reader 5 has allowed me to look further at the different ethical theories that affect moral and ethical decisions.

Personal ethics can be informed from many sources – family values, religion, conscience. My personal ethics I believe have come from my upbringing and my past experiences.  Personal ethics help define you as a person and stay with you wherever you are in life. The word ‘ethics’ I discovered comes from the Greek word ‘ethos’ meaning ‘character’ and from the Latin word ‘mores’ meaning ‘custom’. Together they combine to define how individuals choose to interact with each other. (Reader 5). Professional ethics have evolved from the norms of particular professions. Professional ethics involve the guidelines/codes of conducts set in place in a professional working environment which I talked about in more detail in my previous task on Ethics in the work place. http://melaniecannon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/5b-ethical-considerations-codes-of.html Organizational ethics relates to organizational culture and this is very much about ‘how we do things around here’. (Reader 5)

The reader explains the theoretical approaches to ethics and how they have given us a construct of frameworks by which we can evaluate issues.

Consequentialism - Reader 5 uses an interesting quote based on the understanding of consequentialism ‘To kill one person in order to save 9’. This quote is justified within the concept of consequentialism. The heart of consequentialism is where an act is morally right if, and only if, that act maximizes the good. Deciding on whether an action is morally right depends on the outcomes (consequences). Doing something that isn’t necessarily seen as ‘correct’ as long as it maximises the goods is what this theory believes in. ‘The notion of the greatest happiness for the greatest number is at the heart of consequentialism’ which relates to the above quote. (JS Mill)

On the BBC website – An introduction to ethics, it states that consequentialism teaches that people should do whatever produces the greatest amount of good consequences. It however states two problems with consequentialism:

1)    it can lead to the conclusion that some quite dreadful acts are good

2)    predicting and evaluating the consequences of actions is often very difficult

I believe I would react differently depending on the situation and it is down to me to decide what is appropriate and what not in the given situation. Recent writings stress how factors such as emotions, personal vulnerabilities, personality, and even the context of situations influence how we make decisions, including ethical ones. An effective response requires developed skills, planned resources, the right information, and a pre-established ethical and self awareness

Deontology – A complete contrast to consequentialism. Here Immanuel Kant argued that the motive behind an act is a good will and this determines whether or not it is morally right. It teaches that some acts are right or wrong in themselves, whatever the consequences, and people should act accordingly

Virtue – Virtue concentrates on the character of a person and what actions reveal about this person rather than rules or consequences. Plato and Aristotle put greater emphasis on being rather than doing.

I decided to do further research on the two theories Consequentialism and Deontology giving me further knowledge on the contrast of these two ideologies.

Consequences of what? Rights, relativity and rules

Whilst doing further research I came across an interesting example of consequentialism.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/

‘Imagine that each of five patients in a hospital will die without an organ transplant. The patient in Room 1 needs a heart, the patient in Room 2 needs a liver, and the patient in Room 3 needs a kidney, and so on. The person in Room 6 is in the hospital for routine tests. Luckily (for them, not for him!), his tissue is compatible with the other five patients, and a specialist is available to transplant his organs into the other five. This operation would save their lives, while killing the “donor”. There is no other way to save any of the other five patients’ (Foot 1966, Thomson 1976; compare related cases in Carritt 1947 and McCloskey 1965).

‘We need to add that the organ recipients will emerge healthy, the source of the organs will remain secret, the doctor won't be caught or punished for cutting up the “donor”, and the doctor knows all of this to a high degree of probability (despite the fact that many others will help in the operation). Still, with the right details filled in, it looks as if cutting up the “donor” will maximize utility, since five lives have more utility than one life’ (assuming that the five lives do not contribute too much to overpopulation).

Classical consequentialism implies that it would not be morally wrong for the doctor to perform the transplant and even that it would be morally wrong for the doctor not to perform the transplant. This example to me shows how bad it can be when consquentialism ethics overlook individual rights, such as the unwilling donor’s right to life.

In this example people have argued a point that a killing is worse than a death. The doctor would have to ‘kill’ the donor in order to prevent the deaths of 5 patients, but nobody is actually killed if the five patients die.’ If one killing is worse than five deaths that do not involve killing, then the world that results from the doctor performing the transplant is worse than the world that results from the doctor not performing the transplant’. Here consequentialists can agree with others that it is morally wrong for the doctor to cut up the ‘donor’.

People would argue different in this situation and the consequentialist would say that what they did was for the greater good, whereas the deontologist believes in simply ‘right or wrong’ and the doctor would still be killing someone which is wrong.  

‘This example is so abnormal that we should not expect our normal moral rules to apply, and we should not trust our moral intuitions, which evolved to fit normal situations’ (Sprigge 1965).

I believe all of these theories of ethics could cause conflict at some point in our careers and lives depending on how we choose to react and respond in given situations. The reader draws up an example for us on how ethics can cause conflict. Case study 2 – Ethics in Photography. The photographer Kevin Carter left a girl to die, there is a point stated that he and the other photographers were instructed not to touch anyone for fear of epidemics. ‘Virtue’ the character of a person is really shown in this case study as I believe people with different characters would have reacted differently and taken different actions. Although Kevin and his team where told to not go near this girl, they followed what they believed was right and didn’t take into consideration all consequences. I am not however sure if there is always a right or wrong answer when deciding on how to respond and believe there is much deliberation on these types of cases.

Within my practice I feel like I would touch on all theories of ethics depending on the situation, they may not always be the correct rules and codes of practice that I follow as I believe the ‘virtue’ approach would sometimes take over. For example is hugging students right or wrong? If a student was very upset and came to me with a problem, my natural instinct would be to hug and comfort the child but would this be going against the code of ethics? I believe in society today we have to be very careful about the actions we choose as some people would instantly jump to the wrong conclusion when hearing of a teacher hugging a student. As a teacher I would need to use my professional judgement to work out when it is appropriate to hug.

Research

Reader 5 states ‘when planning an inquiry or research, you need to adhere to sound ethical practice in carrying out the actions themselves’ which will allow me to look further into the ethics I need to consider when carrying out my inquiry. I will use the BERA website as a guideline for my next few tasks which suggests the responsibilities we should have when carrying out research.

Overall this task has allowed me to gain a deeper knowledge surrounding ethics. The examples given to me in reader 5 has allowed me to explore and put myself in different situations enabling me to address how I would react and respond. I have come to the conclusion that you should always look at the consequences of your actions both morally and ethically.