This document discusses ethics from two perspectives. First, it defines ethics as well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe obligations to society through virtues, rights, and prohibitions against harmful acts. Second, it defines ethics as the study and development of one's moral standards to ensure they are well-reasoned and that individuals and institutions uphold these standards. It then discusses the ethical process of gathering information through experience, understanding it, and making reasoned judgments.

1. Eth 288-03 (spring 2015)

2. • Ethics is two things.
• First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that
prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for
example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable
obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and
fraud. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they
are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.
• Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical
standards. It is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to
ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means,
then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and
conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to
shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

3. The Ethical process
 Experience: Experience tells me that the knowledge I
have is based on something that is really out there.
Through experience we gather data.
 Understanding: Understanding is called forth by the
question “what is it?” Understanding puts the separate
parts of the data into some kind of order so that we can
grasp the whole of what is given in the data.
 Judgment: In this operation we try to ask as many
questions as we can about our understanding so that
we may come to as accurate a judgment as possible.

4.  Religious belief/Scripture:
 moral precepts: ie.
 10 Commandments, Matthew 25, Beatitudes
 “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
 Virtuous/heroic stories:
 Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna
 Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Mother Theresa,
 Natural Law:
 Reason and conscience, the natural state for
humans to comprehend and understand universal
truths and insight. To derive formal moral norms
through rational and observable methods that are
generally accepted.

5. Professional Ethical Standards
 American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics: The Code
of Ethics for Nurses was developed as a guide for carrying out
nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality in
nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession.
◦ Provides a succinct statement of the ethical values, obligations, and
duties of every individual who enters the nursing profession.
◦ Serves as the profession’s nonnegotiable ethical standard.
◦ Expresses nursing’s own understanding of its commitment to society.
 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics:
 American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principles of
Phycologists and Code of Conduct:
 UN Global Conduct: Core global values for businesses to adopt
on Human Rights, Labor Standards, the environment and anti-
corruption.
 The Nuremberg Code: Promoting the voluntary consent of the
human subjects.

6. The moral life is a matter of doing the
good. The moral person and the moral
community must discover what is morally
good in reality. This is the fundamental
thrust of a natural law approach to morality
THE MORAL/ETHICAL LIFE

7. Ethical Considerations
• Emperical/Experiential – We come to know morality through
our experience of reality, norms emerge through our
experience.
• Consequential – An important focal point for moral meaning
and formulating moral norms.
• Historical – Recognizing the unfinished, evolutionary
character of human nature and the human world. Dismissing a
“one size fits all” morality.
• Proportional – Looking at making a decision on what outcome
would give us the greatest possible proportion of good over
evil. Making prudential judgments based on proportionality.

8. Moral Philosophies
 Natural
Law/Thomism
 Utilitarianism
 Kantian Ethics
 Ethics of Care
 Existentialism

9. Approaches for Moral Choices
• Strict Consequentialist: Guided my a single formal norm,
discovering the most loving action in the situation. In this
instant, regardless of past experiences, the right moral action
will produce the greatest good for the greatest number.
(Utilitarian model)
• Mixed Consequentialist: recognizing the moral complexity of
reality this approach considers a number of factors. “It tries to
determine the means truly proportionate to the good
intended and the evil inevitably caused without losing a grasp
on the basic goods that define the human possibility for
growth. (Ethics of Care model)
• Deontological Approach: Some acts and norms are always
either right or wrong, no matter what the consequence, i.e.
killing the innocent is “intrinsically morally evil.” Actions are
right if they follow morally right norms. (Kantian model)

10. Virtue Ethics
 Virtue Ethics: emphasizes
the role of one's character
and the virtues that one's
character embodies for
determining or evaluating
ethical behavior. –
(existentialist model)
 “What virtues should a
good person possess
who happens to work as
a physician?”

11.  Conscience must be informed and
moral judgment enlightened. A well-
formed conscience is upright and
truthful. It formulates its judgments
according to reason, in conformity with
the true good that is universally
recognized through a consensus of
values and ethical codes. The education
of conscience is indispensable for
human beings who are subjected to
negative influences and tempted by self
interest to prefer their own judgments
and to reject broader principles of the
common good.
-adapted from the Catechism of the
Catholic Church
FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE

12. Ground Rules for Civil Dialogue
We are all called to engage in civil dialogue. Here are some
possible ground rules for civil dialogue:
1. Make sure everyone has an opportunity to speak.
2. Share your personal experience, not someone else’s.
3. Listen carefully and respectfully. Speak carefully and
respectfully. Do not play the role of know-it-all, convincer or
corrector. Remember that a dialogue is not a debate.
4. Don’t interrupt unless for clarification or time keeping.
5. Accept that no group or viewpoint has a complete monopoly
on the truth.
6. “Be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s
statement than condemn it” (St. Ignatius of Loyola).
7. Be cautious about assigning motives to another person.

14. Beauchamp & Childress' principles
 Autonomy: The right for an
individual to make his or her
own choice.
 Beneficence: The principle
of acting with the best
interest of the other in mind.
 Non-maleficence: The
principle that "above all, do
no harm," as stated in the
Hippocratic Oath.
 Justice: A concept that
emphasizes fairness and
equality among individuals.

15. THEORIES OF JUSTICE
 Libertarianism:
 Rawlsian:
 Marxism: