...Torture Despite the strong commitments of the US legal system of torture, ever since 9/11, torture became an acceptable tool to be used. The practice of torture is difficult to address because there is not a concrete definition of what torture is. Thinking torture can be justified is not the same as thinking it is necessary. A survey posted by The Huffington Post, concluded that respondents were more uncertain about whether information gained through torturing suspected terrorists is generally reliable or unreliable. The survey also found significant uncertainty over whether the U.S. had used torture to track down Big Laden, as the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty” portrays. As defined by dictionary.com, “torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.” However, there are many other definitions. Defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture, torture is an act where intentional pain is inflicted on a purpose. According to the Third Geneva Convention, torture is known to cause no “no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever”. Who draws the line as to which specific practices are harsh enough to correspond to those words? Some have suggested that torture is worse than killing, and that torturing the innocent is morally worse than murder. The most prevalent forms...
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...Is Abortion Immoral? Question 1: Imagine two philosophers sitting on a bench at the county morgue. They are looking at the bodies being brought in and three in particular interest them. One is a woman who was six months pregnant due to rape and died from the pregnancy complication. She wanted to have an abortion but it (abortion) was illegal under all circumstances in her state. One is the body of a woman who died after attempting to give herself an abortion with a coat hanger. She was a poor woman who lives in the slums; she had no money to take care of the child and no way to feed her living children if she lost her work from the pregnancy. Another body is that of a one-month-old fetus that was aborted once the mother found out that it was going to be a girl. She has just had one child and wanted to wait for a couple of years to have another. While looking at these bodies the philosophers begin to discuss the question: “Is abortion immoral”? How would the discussion proceed if the two philosophers were: 1) You and Judith Thomson? 2) You ad Sidney Callahan? 3) Which position (s) do you find morally compelling and why? In this scenario, the two philosophers are sitting on a bench at the county morgue. They are looking at the bodies that died involving abortion’s issues. I will call case A – a woman who was six months pregnant due to rape and died from the pregnancy complication because abortion was illegal in her state. Case B is the poor...
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...The Parable of the Sadhu Ethical decision-making as individuals Four New Zelanders, two Swiss couples, two Americans, and a group of Japanese encountered a dying sadhu in their trip of conquering the summit of the world. They did it. They finally put their feet on the Everest. However, none of them conquered the weakness of human being and all fell before getting up the courage to make a decision beyond their ethical principles. What are the causes behind their decisions of giving limited helps to a dying person is really worth our reflection. Some of them might care their advantages, back off in front of responsibilities, worry about the consequences, or they just simply don’t care enough a strange person laid down on their way to the greatness. Moral disengagement mechanisms Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura first put forward the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). The theory states that people observe others’ behavior and what the consequence caused by that behavior and then use the observation to guide their future behaviors. The SCT offers an agentic perspective on human behavior whereby individuals exercise control over their own thoughts and behaviors through self-regulatory processes (Bandura, 1986). During the process of observing others’ behavior, people gradually develop their personal moral standards that guide their selfregulation process. People use this standard to judge, monitor, and control their conducts to make right decisions and avoid bad behaviors. However...
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...Because society put emphasis on productivity and profit, most economic systems in the world tend to be oriented toward capitalism instead of communism. Many believe that capitalism is immoral because it is based on profit, which they claim to be the result of egoistic actions. I personally think that it is not the system that is unethical, but more how it is used and what is done with it. It can be compared to a neutral instrument such as a knife, which can be used either to cut food or kill. There is no morality in the knife itself. In this essay, it will be argued that, unlike most beliefs, capitalism is a morally acceptable economic system. To support this claim, three premises will be used. First of all, the market economy on which capitalism is based upon, promotes mutual help and fair exchange. Also, under such a system, when an individual is pursuing his own interests, he is simultaneously increasing the general wealth of his society as well as his own. Lastly, capitalism facilitates exchanges with people outside of our circle of care by dealing with them voluntarily and allows both individuals to profit from the transaction. In order to accurately evaluate an economic system, one should fully understand how it works as well as its purpose. As it has...
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...Bioethics Notes For Learning Community Fall 2011 Bioethics Potter ethics with the biosphere Now ethics having to do with the medical fields and professions A branch of applied ethics Introduction to ethics. I. II. To what extent is reasoning possible in ethics? One assumption: ethics is subjective A. If subjective then no disagree: Paul I like my coffee sweetened, Helen unsweetened: no disagreement B. If Paul “drs should sometimes assist their patient’s death, Helen: No (then real disagreement) C. There is a point here about disagreement A characteristic of ethics and ethical argumentation consistency: A. It is always wrong to kill a human being B. Abortion is not always wrong C. I am committed to holding that abortion isn’t always the killing of a human being a. This sets a limit on the subjectivity of ethics b. Another such limit: factual accuracy c. One can enjoy a taste without knowing what it is d. In ethics we have to understand the facts of the matter: patient’s prognosis, wishes etc ...
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...strong. It is amazing that his wife was able to translate and use words with so much power and strength. I had the same feelings and questions after reading Night as I have had after reading Ann Frank’s diary or watching Schindler’s list. How could this happen? What would drive any one to these thoughts or actions and believe it is right, good, or even acceptable. I wonder how Adolf Hitler would have felt if Jews had decided to eradicate Austrian/ Germans? What would he have done, would he have died or survived? I googled Adolf Hitler and there are several websites saying his father was ½ Jewish. There is even a video on UTube about Hitler being part Jewish. With a name like Adolf, some of his facial characteristics, and hair as dark as his why, would he want to annihilate a mass of people who are similar to him? I am not sure if Hitler truly was part Jewish, but if he was, did he know? How would he react if he was alive, the allegations were true and he were finding out? What would drive someone to destroy one group of people and to create a “pure race”? How can anyone describe or make a pure race? I think the only way to describe a pure race is by being disease free. I can understand how one person can hate another or simply not like them based on an action or belief. I cannot grasp the idea of wanting to murder an...
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...forms of consequentialism are concerned solely with consequences and are indifferent to the personal integrity of a person, something that is formed by their deepest held moral principles.[2] By forcing a person to reject her conscience and compelling her to perform lesser evils, utilitarianism requires us to discard integrity and should be rejected on these grounds, or at least so says Williams.[3] It can be difficult to understand Williams’ argument without making clear the charges he makes against utilitarianism and why they are considered to be effective attacks against the view. To get the clearest conception possible of the charges made, one should have a firm grasp of the utilitarian position so that one may successfully relate Williams’ criticisms to the theory. First, the utilitarian moral theory must be clearly formulated. Then I will present and clarify some of Williams’ objections against this theory. Finally, I will explore some utilitarian responses to Williams’ objections. Articulating Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a moral theory that is traditionally attributed to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.[4] In his essay An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Bentham illustrates his view on the notion of utility by stating at the very beginning that: Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we...
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...Life of Pi & Speluncean Explorers: A Reaction Paper In the light of this most recent event of cannibalism, the question of right and wrong has arisen once again. A young boy by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel experienced a shipwreck, where he was later stranded on a lifeboat with his mother, a French cook and a Taiwanese sailor. They drift for several weeks before the cook butchers Pi’s mother and the sailor and eats parts of their flesh. Left alone with the cook, Pi stabs him to death and eats his heart and liver. The facts of the case stated above are a reminder of the precedent case of the Speluncean Explorers. In the case of the Speluncean Explorers five men who ventured out to explore caves, happened to get trapped in one for many days. As the days passed the men were getting frantic and decided that their best chance of survival was if one of them sacrificed their lives in order for the others to feast on him. Subsequently, Roger Whetmore the man who initiated the idea was killed and fed upon by his fellow explorers. When the other four were finally rescued and brought back to civilization, they were tried by the court of Newgarth and were convicted for the murder of Roger Whetmore and were sentenced to be hanged. On reading the facts of the cases we can draw strings of both similarities and differences. If we were to go with the ruling of the precedent case even if we might not agree with the decision then this would be an open and shut case where Pi would...
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...Placing Value on Life: Is One More Valuable Than Another? Cheanel Nolden Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility SOC 120 Professor Elizabeth Tinch August 15, 2013 A woman lies in the hospital in labor in January 2007. After more than twenty hours, the doctor and several nurses come in to speak to the woman’s family. Her blood pressure is very high, and she is at risk of having a dry birth. All of this is further complicated by the fact that the baby has a hole in his heart, and has lungs that have not developed properly. The doctor speaks to the woman’s grandmother. She wants to know, in the event of a C-section that could go awry, which patient should be saved – the twenty-four year old mother, or her still unseen baby boy. The grandmother speaks with no hesitation, stating that everything possible should be done to save her granddaughter, meaning that the child could die. Through her tears, the mother begs for just the opposite, pleading for her child’s life to be saved, even if it is at the expense of her own. From her hospital bed, she tries her best to change her grandmother’s mind. Her grandmother firmly maintains that the woman may have other children in the future, and that if she dies today, the grandmother would possibly be left to raise a young child in her old age, and that child may have a disability. Her blood pressure continues to rise as she is overcome with fear and hurt at the prospect of losing this child that she has...
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...itself is waged, and how one can know when war is finished – if it ever is. The shared meanings and narratives through which the culture of war is constructed are diverse: oral stories told and retold, myths and legends, historical accounts, and modern journalistic reports – and it’s important to note how the nature of those last has changed as our understanding of what qualifies as “journalism” has changed as well. Video games are worth considering in this context, not only because of their pervasiveness but because of their narrative power. They share much in common with film: interaction with them is mediated by a monitor, and they almost always feature a narrative of some kind that drives the action on the screen. However, video games are also different from other forms of media in that they are simulations – they go beyond audio-visual narrative and into at least an attempt to approximate a particular kind of experience. Further, unlike movies and TV, a feature of the experience they offer is active participation. This isn’t to say that movies and TV are passive; they’ve been too often dismissed as such, when viewing those forms of media in fact often involves complex patterns of interpretation and meaning-making. However, the difference is still worth some attention. I want to argue that this difference has particular implications for how we as a largely civilian population understand war and reproduce the meanings we attach to it. Further, I think that how our games tell...
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...with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation ● a set of moral principles or values ● a theory or system of moral values 2 ● the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. Ethics, in all of these definitions, is concerned with right or wrong behavior. This reading focuses on the discipline or study of ethics. 1. THE DISCIPLINE OF ETHICS This discipline consists of the examination and evaluation of actions, social practices, institutions, and systems to determine whether and why they are good or bad, right or wrong, and whether they should be promoted or reformed—in short, whether particular actions, practices, or systems are moral or immoral. For example, ethics examines whether capital punishment is morally acceptable and why. The discipline...
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...October 10, 2011 The United States is still one of the countries that still use the death penalty as punishment for crimes. While some see it as barbaric and totally against American values, others view it as an important deterrent to violent crimes- such as murder. Regardless of which side you are on, one thing is for sure- the debate isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Capital punishment, another name for the death penalty, has been present in the United States since 1608. This is the process by which a person a person is tried and put to death for crimes they have committed. The list of crimes that are punishable by death vary from state to state (the U.S. government and the U.S. military have their own criteria), as well as the methods used for execution. Lethal injection is the standard for execution, but there are several other methods used, including: electrocution, hanging, and death by firing squad. Although every state does not employ the death penalty- a vast majority do. Along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. government, 36 states currently have the power to execute inmates. Through the centuries there has been endless debate about the morality, legality, and constitutionality of capital punishment. For many (and for my paper’s sake) the debate is whether or not the death penalty is ethical. Specifically, is it ethical to put someone to death for a crime that they committed? There are definitely two sides to this debate, and several reasons on...
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...of people have been affected by these things such as the Marriage Equality right and the Affordable Care act. These issues, however, need to be solved before our country takes a turn for the worst. After years and years of presidents getting up and stating that they were going to make this a better country all we have seen as a nation is our debt get higher as well as our kids. We have allowed states to legalize marijuana which has seemed to increase the amount of users outside of those states. Now that those states have legalized marijuana, users outside of those states want their states to legalize it but non users are not being thought of when it comes to this decision. People are forgetting about the underdogs, those who do not use marijuana nor do they want their families around it. If all of the states were to legalize it then where are those who want to avoid it going to go? Will it affect or pollute the fresh air? Will the phrase “fresh air” even be realistic? Should states even have the right to legalize marijuana? These are some things that will be considered when it comes to legalizing marijuana. Another issue that needs to be focused on is No Child Left Behind act in our schools. We need to educate our teachers better before they teach in front of a class, then they need to be monitored regularly in order for them to take their job seriously. Teachers should have to go to weekly meetings to discuss what they did that week and what they plan to get done in the upcoming...
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...sweatshop practices such as coercion, unsafe working conditions, deception, paying workers less than promised, etc. These practices are not seriously defended by many people, if any. But the “sweatshop” label can still apply to jobs that do not involve any of these more obvious moral atrocities. A difficult job with long hours that pays very little may still be referred to as a sweatshop job and, I will argue, may still be morally objectionable. The question I want to consider is whether it is morally justifiable to pay the very low sweatshop wages for the very arduous sweatshop labor even if there is no coercion, deception, or direct causing of harm. Some defenders of capitalism and supporters of free-market economics have defended sweatshop wages on the grounds that they benefit the desperately poor workers of these impoverished countries who are very glad to get the work. In an important and widely reprinted paper, Ian Maitland argues that “the appropriate test [for fair wages] is not whether the wage reaches some predetermined standard but whether it is freely accepted by (reasonably) informed workers.”1 In this paper I will criticize the defense, as well as the practice, of (excessively low) sweatshop wages. In particular I will challenge the claim that one cannot wrong someone by benefiting...
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...1 Copyright © 2014 SuccessVantage Pte Ltd All rights reserved Published by Winter & Alvin No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded, scanned, or otherwise, except as permitted under Canadian copyright law, without the prior written permission of the author. Notes to the Reader: While the author and publisher of this book have made reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no liability with respect to losses or damages caused, or alleged to be caused, by any reliance on any information contained herein and disclaim any and all warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy or reliability of said information. The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. It is the complete responsibility of the reader to ensure they are adhering to all local, regional and national laws. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering professional services. If legal, accounting...
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