The document discusses various frameworks for ethical decision-making including consequentialism, deontology, and the ABC (awareness, balance, courage) model. It examines ethical issues related to topics like the trolley problem, medical ethics scenarios, and making responsible decisions. Common pitfalls in ethical reasoning are identified such as ignorance, failing to consider alternatives, and succumbing to peer pressure.

1. Responsible
Ethical Decision-Making
1. How do we make good ethical decisions?
2. Where do we go wrong when we make an
ethical decision improperly?
3. Who are we responsible to?

2. 2
The Trolley Problem

3. 3
The Trolley Problem: take 2

4. 4
The Transplant Surgeon

5. 5
Consequentialism & Deontology
 Consequentialism – rightness depends on consequences
 Deontology – rightness depends at least in part on a formal
moral rule or principle

6. United States vs. Holmes
(1842) 6
Consequentialist or deontological ethical reasons?
• Save the majority
• Murder is absolutely prohibited
• Bad effect of corroding moral standards
• Must engage in due process

7. 7
Morality and personal relationships

8. 8
Sample ethical problem
“You’ve got to help us,” Clarence Woody said.
“Keith is… was… our only child, and he meant
the world to us. When the police came and told
us he was dead, all Sara and I could think of was
how we could get him back.”
“ But you can’t get him back,” Dr. Alma Lieu said.
“Even if we prepared one of his cells and
implanted it in your wife’s uterus, the baby
wouldn’t be Keith.”
“But he would be his genetic twin,” Clarence said.
“He would be as close as we can get to
replacing our son.” His eyes filled with tears.
“Won’t you help us?”

9. 9
Sample ethical problem
If a father has no other way to raise money for
surgery necessary to preserve the life of his child,
would it be morally permissible for him to sell a
kidney?
Should we hold him morally blameworthy if, given
the opportunity, he refused to do so?

10. Ethical Decision-Making:
the ABC model
AWARENESS BALANCE COURAGE
• relevant facts • Ideals • intention to act
•issues • Obligations • skillful action
• stakeholders • Utilities
• stakes
• options

11. Ethical Decision-Making: 11
the ABC model
Character
Affective state
situation context Engagement
Biases
person
AWARENESS BALANCE COURAGE
• relevant facts • Ideals • intention to act
•issues • Obligations • skillful action
• stakeholders • Utilities
• stakes
• options

12. Ethical Decision-Making: 12
the ABC model
Issue intensity
Obedience to authority
Peer pressure situation context
Slippery slopes
Sunk costs
person
AWARENESS BALANCE COURAGE
• relevant facts • Ideals • intention to act
•issues • Obligations • skillful action
• stakeholders • Utilities
• stakes
• options

13. Situational “Intensity”
 social consensus – the degree of social agreement that about the
moral value (e.g. evil) of a proposed act.
 magnitude of consequences – the sum of the benefits/harms done to
victims/beneficiaries of the moral act in question.
 concentration of effect – how spread out or concentrated are the
harms/benefits of the proposed action.
 probability of effect – a joint of function of the probability that the act
in question will actually take place and that it will actually cause the
harms/benefits predicted
 temporal immediacy – the length of time between the present and
the onset of consequences of the moral act in question.
 proximity – the feeling of nearness (social, cultural, psychological, or
physical) that the moral agent has for the victims/beneficiaries of the
evil/good act in question.
- Jones, 1991

14. Ethical Decision-Making:
the ABC model
Law
Organizational
policies and norms
Professional duties
Culture
situation context
person
AWARENESS BALANCE COURAGE
• relevant facts • Ideals • intention to act
•issues • Obligations • skillful action
• stakeholders • Utilities
• stakes
• options

15. Issue intensity Law
Obedience to authority Organizational
Peer pressure policies and norms
Slippery slopes Professional duties
Sunk costs Culture
situation context metacognition
Character
Affective state
person
learning
AWARENESS BALANCE COURAGE
• relevant facts • Ideals • intention to act
•issues • Obligations • skillful action
• stakeholders • Utilities
• stakes
• options
Ethical Decision-Making: the ABC model

16. Beware these common stumbling blocks
1. Ignorance (though one can
be negligent or reckless in 5. The path of least resistance
one’s ignorance, and one may make it easier to do
can also choose to be the wrong thing
ignorant)
6. A lack of courage to do
2. Failure to consider non- what’s right and deal with
obvious alternatives the consequences
3. Using oversimplified decision 7. Peer pressure /
rules that are inappropriate in organizational culture
more complex circumstances distorts our moral perception
or reasoning
4. Settling for an option people
can live with, even if it’s not
the best option.

17. An Ethical Analysis