* What are ethics?
Ethics are standards of right and wrong, good and bad. Ethics are concerned with what one ought to do to fulfill one’s moral duty. There are two aspects to ethics: * Being able to determine what is right or wrong, good or bad. * Committing to doing what is right and good. * The latter aspect means that being ethical is more than understanding what the right thing is to do; it means that one must do ethical actions – one must “walk the talk.” * Why study ethics?
One reason to study ethics is that ethics is inescapable. If you do not study ethics, chances are you will have no opportunity to carefully reflect on the values that shape your life, no chance to think about whether the values in your society are wise or foolish, no chance to expand awareness of the values of other persons. * Ethical framework?
There is no one universally accepted way of deciding whether something is ethically acceptable or not. Instead there are several different ethical frameworks. * Right and duties: Rights define what people can expect as their due, so far as it is under the control of people or human society. * Maximizing the amount of good: this framework balance the benefits of an action against the risks and costs. It promotes the common good to help everyone have a fair share of the benefits in society, a community or a family. * Making decisions for yourself: this framework considers that people should make their own lives. Respecting people’s autonomy and decision making abilities enables individuals to make reasoned and informed choices. * Leading a virtuous life: this framework supports the moral ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ of actions. An action can be described as right or wrong independently from any consequences of the action.

* Accountability: A typical definition is that accountability concerns the processes by which