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Journal 5: Special Topics

In this section we looked at three different important moral issues: the just war theory, medical ethics, and business ethics. We asked questions surrounding the morality of these issues and how morally responsible we would be in some cases. We did not necessarily find an answer to the questions we asked, such as “Should Vernado Simpson have been held responsible for his actions at My Lai?” but we brought them to the table and discussed them, looking at an argument from both sides. We also looked at the moral responsibility that doctors are burdened with when someone is dying. They need to be able to make the right decision, whether to act or not to, when someone else’s life is in their hands. They need to try to determine when life is really living if someone becomes a vegetable, or whether to let someone risk their own life by giving their organs to another person who will certainly die without it. In business ethics, we looked at several cases where people chose to do the morally right thing, which would be considered financially a disastrous thing to do. We also looked at cases where people decided to take the financially smart decision, usually at the expense of others. A common theme among these people was that they did not believe they were doing anything morally wrong, despite their exploiting others.

Just War:

Types of Obligations:

“Relative” obligation – something that we can follow, but usually no more than a rule-of-thumb sort of thing.

Prima Facie obligation – this is essentially required for us to follow, but may not necessarily determine our actions. It is something that we should strongly follow.

Absolute obligation – this is an obligation we must follow at all times, no matter what, even if it comes in conflict with other obligations we might have.

à Catholic’s just war theory comes from a conflict between our absolute obligation to preserve justice and our prima facie obligation to be nonviolent. While we are to avoid being nonviolent as much as we can, if it is the only way of restoring justice, we are obligated to use force since our absolute obligation takes priority over our prima facie obligation.

Medical Ethics:

The doctors at University of Chicago were presented with three real-life issues that they needed to act on, one way or another: whether to act on a woman in a coma whose family could not be found to make the decision; whether or not to take a liver from an uncle, risking his own life, for a little girl who would die without a new liver; and whether or not to sustain the life of a baby born at only 24 weeks. The doctors met with an ethics team and the family’s (except in Ms. Burton’s case) and discussed the pros and cons of each decision. They did all they could to make an informed decision and then they made one, not necessarily what they thought was the right one in hindsight.

Business Ethics:

In my own personal opinion, Victor Crawford is one of the sleaziest guys that I have heard of, but in our culture and market economy, he would be considered very successful. He knowingly lied to politicians as a lobbyist for tobacco companies in order to shoot down legislation that could hurt the industry, and he raked in profits. He knew first hand that tobacco and smoking is dangerous to a person’s health; he developed cancer as a result from smoking, but he still worked for the tobacco companies anyway. He broke no laws he justifies his actions with the rationale that because he broke no laws, he did nothing morally wrong.

picture from this site.

This picture reminds me of the massacre at My Lai. I read a caption on this picture somewhere that the photographer took the picture of these people, turned away, and heard M-16s open fire and the people drop to the ground. You can see the fear and despair in the people faces, especially the children.

A question we spent a lot of time on in class was whether the soldiers at My Lai should be held morally responsible for their actions. On one hand they were caught in the moment with their friends dying at the hands of an invisible enemy and they were doing as they were trained and ordered to do. But on the other, the army does not teach rape, scalping, cutting gout tongues, and shooting children. Where did that come from?

I think the business ethics is the section that applies most directly to me right now. I think I need to keep in mind that people always come before money or power. Even the minor financial decisions I have to make now should always put people first, so when I get into the bigger world, I will know how to act.