Ethical dilemma
An ethical dilemma refers to a complex situation where an individual faces a difficult decision due to conflicting morals or values that complicate the discernment of right from wrong. These dilemmas can emerge in various contexts, including business, medicine, and politics, making ethical decision-making a vital skill. Individuals confronting ethical dilemmas must navigate choices that often carry negative consequences, with no option appearing entirely right or acceptable.
To approach ethical dilemmas, one can utilize different frameworks, including results-oriented and action-oriented perspectives. The results-oriented approach assesses actions based on their outcomes, while the action-oriented approach considers the inherent morality of the actions themselves. Other frameworks include utilitarianism, which seeks the greatest good for the greatest number; the rights approach, which focuses on respecting individual rights; the justice approach, aimed at ensuring fair treatment; the common good approach, which emphasizes community benefits; and the virtue approach, which strives for personal moral excellence.
When faced with an ethical dilemma, individuals can follow a structured process that includes identifying the issue, considering various perspectives, analyzing consequences, evaluating options, making a decision, and reflecting on the outcomes to enhance future ethical reasoning.
Ethical dilemma
An ethical dilemma is a complicated situation in which one must make a difficult choice or decision in the face of conflicting morals, or the values one uses to determine the difference between right and wrong. More simply, an ethical dilemma involves conditions that make it hard to discern the right or proper thing to do. Ethical dilemmas arise in business, medicine, politics, and other aspects of life all the time. When faced with ethical dilemmas, people must try to make ethical decisions. Making such decisions is not easy. Often all of the available choices have some type of negative consequence, and none of them may seem right or proper. In such cases, people may consider various ethical approaches to guide them toward a decision.
Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas
When faced with an ethical dilemma, people may use any number of approaches to help them determine the most ethical course of action. The two most general approaches are results oriented and action oriented.
The results-oriented approach focuses on consequences. It suggests that actions have no ethical value on their own, but their consequences can be used to determine whether they are ethically moral or right. Generally speaking, actions that help people or create many advantages are considered right, and actions that harm people or create many disadvantages are considered wrong. For example, to a person who abides by the results-oriented approach, telling a lie is neither right nor wrong until he or she considers the consequences of lying. If lying has the power to help a great number of people and provides more advantages than disadvantages, the person would consider lying ethical, or right. However, if lying has the power to hurt more people than it helps and provides more disadvantages than advantages, the person would consider lying unethical, or wrong.
The action-oriented approach suggests that actions in and of themselves are either right or wrong. For example, to a person who abides by the action-oriented approach, telling the truth is always right, even if the truth has the potential to cause harm. Telling a lie is always wrong, even if the lie has the potential to help many people.
Although the results-oriented and action-oriented approaches oppose each other, they can be used together to help people make ethical decisions. Individuals may also use several more specific approaches to make decisions when faced with an ethical dilemma.
Utilitarian
The utilitarian approach to an ethical dilemma seeks to find a solution that leads to the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The utilitarian approach is derived from the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Actions that create more benefits and help people are right. Actions that create more drawbacks and harm people are wrong. The overall goal of the utilitarian approach is to increase happiness through pleasure. Laws, rights, religious beliefs, and personal moral codes play no role in the utilitarian approach.
Rights
The rights approach to an ethical dilemma seeks to find a solution that respects the basic rights of everyone involved. Some rights, such as those enumerated in the Constitution of the United States, are codified by law. Others, such as moral rights, are more abstract and may have different meanings to different people. Although the overall goal of the rights approach is to respect the rights of all parties involved, certain ethical dilemmas may make this impossible. In such cases, people may have to assign more weight to certain rights over others and consider other factors in their decision.
Justice
The justice approach to an ethical dilemma seeks to find a solution that treats equal parties equally. The goal of the justice approach is to make sure that people receive fair or impartial treatment. If a person makes a decision that results in unequal treatment of the parties involved, the individual must consider why this inequality occurred and whether it is fair or justified.
Common Good
The common good approach to an ethical dilemma seeks to find a solution that best serves the entire community, rather than just a few individuals. The common good refers to the structures that benefit everyone in a community, such as clean water and air, access to health care, and fair laws. Using this approach, it is possible for a person to make an ethical decision that benefits the common good yet results in an unequal distribution of advantages and disadvantages among different groups.
Virtue
The virtue approach to an ethical dilemma seeks to find a solution that allows a person to reach one's highest potential and become the person the individual wants to be. Examples of virtues are bravery, honesty, love, and thoughtfulness. When using the virtue approach to solve an ethical dilemma, a person questions whether a particular decision leads to an individual becoming the best version of oneself.
Making an Ethical Decision
When a person faces an ethical dilemma, the individual may find it difficult to determine the right, or moral, thing to do. In such cases, one can take certain steps that will lead one to an ethical decision.
- Identify the problem. Be sure to think about all aspects of the problem, including all parties involved.
- Consider the problem from a variety of perspectives. Think about the options each approach offers for solving the problem.
- Analyze the consequences. How does each option affect the parties involved? Are these options fair? What are the short-term and long-term effects of each option?
- Analyze the actions. Are the actions required for each option legal? Are they moral? Do they uphold one's virtues?
- Make a decision. Try to choose the option that maximizes benefit and minimizes harm.
- Reflect on the outcome. What happened as a result of the decision? What lesson can one learn to apply to similar ethical dilemmas in the future?
Bibliography
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"A Framework for Ethical Decision Making." Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, 8 Nov. 2021, www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html. Accessed 23 July 2024.
McLeod, Danielle. "Ethics vs. Morals–Definition, Difference and Examples." Grammarist, grammarist.com/usage/ethics-morals/. Accessed 23 July 2024.
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