Ethical Decision Making Reflection Research Assignment (Essay Sample)

Ethical Decision Making Reflection
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Ethical Decision Making Reflection
Introduction
I had never considered the issue of ethical decision making to be a problem. Ethical decision-making started to be an issue of dilemma when I joined college. I was exposed to students from different parts of the world with different cultures and values, which were different from my Chinese culture. However, when I joined this class, the class has been useful where I have learned to appreciate the essence of ethical decision-making as well as learning essential skills and theory to guide me in any instance that may require these vital skills. For this reason, the report purposes to present a reflection on the ethical decision-making process. The presentation will premise on Lawrence Kohlberg perspective on the issue of the ethical decision-making process.
Stage 1: Moral Awareness
Based on the class lectures and my extensive research, I concluded that many factors are critical in blocking the recognition of ethical issues in the professional and personal life of Lawrence Kohlberg. The first factor is the uprightness in the habits of Kohlberg. The capacity of Kohlberg to recognize an ethical issue will depend on his attitude. A habit, a trait that shapes individual attitude, is a behavioral intention on the manner that a person would love to see the society as well as the manner the person would love the society to see them. Habit dictates the manner a person has behaved in the past when subject to specified circumstances. For this reason, habits can act as a mirror to what to expect from a person when facing specific situations. A person with a lack of moral uprightness will often fail to recognize ethical issues because of his habits (Devettere, 2009).
The second factor I perceive to be critical is the societal culture and pressure. During my lectures, societal culture and pressure were deemed as decisive factors that influenced the perception of a person on ethical issues in a daily basis. Societal culture and pressure can either enhance the capacity to identify ethical issues or act as an obstruction to recognizing ethical issues. In the latter, a society epitomized by no sense of moral uprightness in their culture will automatically act, as an obstruction to the recognition of issues deemed ethical. For instance, a society where abortion is legal may fail to recognize the issue as an ethical concern in contrast to a society where abortion is illegal.
Another factor I deem relevant is moral credentialing. The moral image of Kohlberg will help him determines his capacity to recognize an ethical issue. If Kohlberg has never been a reflection of ethical uprightness in the work setting, the ability to identify any ethical issue will be low.
The capacity of Kohlberg to acknowledge ethical issues in future will depend on, first, establishing of rules to guide his moral uprightness. I find the need to establish rules by Kohlberg relevant because rules often constrain human. Moreover, rules govern situations and environments such as professional setting. Subsequently, Kohlberg will have to engage in attitude change. Attitude impacts readily on behavior hence a manipulation in the attitude perception will help Kohlberg appreciate ethical issues.
Stage 2: Alternatives and Judgment
While discussing the Kantian theory in class, it was apparent that Immanuel Kant based the theory on the fact that rational persons have the aptitude to reason what moral principles should govern their actions. Two issues defined the theory; the issues are the moral duty and universal principality. On the issue of abortion, which my class covered, explaining this ethical issue based on Kant’s moral theory will be suitable. Based on the Kantian theory, explaining the concern of abortion will first demand the perception of women as equal beings as compared to men. For this reason, answering of Kantian questions such as under what conditions can a person develop their life courses, regard themselves with respect, recognize their moral agency and autonomy, and engage in duties to themselves if the person is likely to be pregnant will be essential. The Kantian ethics perceive humans as rational and self-legislating, attributes, which I find not applicable to a fetus. As a result, any defense on the rights of the fetus will not be practical based on Kantian ethics. To me, the Kantian idea of autonomy only applies to the pregnant women, who are rational and self-legislating with the right to determine whether to continue an unwanted pregnancy. Compelling a woman to have a baby against her wish will be infringing her sense of autonomy. As a result, I conclude that engaging in abortion has to depend on the decision of woman because of her attributes as a rational and self-legislating person hence (Collier, & Haliburton, 2015). The helpful Kantian principles I find in addressing this concern are the autonomy of women as humans, the capacity of women to make their decisions as self-legislating persons and the ability of women to be rational.
Euthanasia is an ethical issue that attracts immense contention on whether it should be morally permissible or legally permissible. I find the utilitarianism theory to be well placed to explain the ethical concern of euthanasia. In my group discussion, my friends and I concluded that utilitarianism theory premises on seeking to create the greatest happiness for all parties involved in an ethical issue. Based on the theory, an action will be morally justifiable if it promotes interests of all the concerned parties, in addition to not violating the rights of any of the involved parties. Founded on this theory, I find the theory to judge the issue of euthanasia the on a case-by-case basis. The theory acknowledges that differences between the types of euthanasia are not morally significant unless they have contrasting consequences. The only critical issue is whether the euthanasia creates more happiness or less suffering as compared to preventing it. For this reason, I perceive that euthanasia is morally right if the patient consents to it (Velasquez, 2016). The helpful theory I identified in the utilitarianism theory was the essence of interests of all parties involved in an ethical issue. Consequently, a moral decision has to attract contentedness among all the involved parties.
Ethical controversies stem from conflicts between the good of the society and the good of an individual. The trolley problem was an interesting ethical concern in class discussion. I opted to explain this ethical concern based on natural law theory. The natural law theory validates the fact that authority of legal standards mainly derives, at least in part from deliberations having to do with the moral value of these standards. Based on this theory it is prudent to save five persons if the bad action of killing a single person is an unintended consequence of the good effect of saving the other five persons. As a result, the bad is not justifiable means to good as well as the good outweighing the bad action (Resnik, 2012). Based on the ethical decision in this ethical concern, I find the natural law theory effective particularly in addressing an instance of competing for ethical issues, where assuming any decision will adversely affect the other issue in spite of being the most plausible decision.
For intending parents, establishing a family is a freedom expected as a matter of course. However, in instances where the natural conception of the baby is impossible, the concern of surrogacy arises. To explain this ethical concern of surrogacy altruism theory will come in handy. Altruism theory alleges that some actions, which are helpful are altruistic based on being stimulated by the genuine desire to enhance another person’s welfare. According to altruism theory, the theory seeks to avoid the potential of a power imbalance for aspiring parents on the presumption that a woman will deliberately give free consent to be a surrogate, as an expression of her reproductive liberty, when not pursuing a financial motive. For this reason, a lack of coercion of the birth mother to engage in surrogacy will mean that the action is morally justifiable even in instances of financial reward to the birth mother (Resnik, 2012). However, I have realized that in the modern day surrogacy, the principle of a genuine desire to help is not helpful because of the monetary value that often surrogates demand for their services. As a result, surrogating is a business opportunity for many women in countries such as India.
Equally, another ethical issue that attracted immense contention in my group discussion was corporal punishment evident at judicial, terrorism, school and domestic level. Whereas my friends choose other theories to expound on the concern, I found golden rule theory to have a convincing explanation. The golden rule, which is a theory of reciprocity, alleges that all actions should premise on equality and worth of all persons. Therefore, the justification use of corporal punishment can be on a case-to-case basis, for instance, a terrorist who engage in mass murder, corporal punishment will be effectual, in contrast to instances of corporal punishment for children in school and domestic level. For this reason, I harbor the perspective that children should not be subject to corporal punishment, which can be the case for terrorist acts (Aehlert & Vroman, 2011).
Stage 3: Decision and Action
From the five instances of ethical issues, evident in the issue of abortion, euthanasia, the trolley problem, surrogacy and corporal punishment, the possible actions and the reasoning I used to decide the ultimate action entail the following.
On the first instance of the issue of abortion founded on the Kantian moral theory, I was convinced that the decision had to be premise...