People define ethics differently, making it challenging to develop a universal definition. Ethics can be defined as rational principles of right and wrong that outline what people should do. These principles are typically expressed in rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or particular qualities (Blaga, 2019). Ethics define people’s integrity; in most situations, our ethics are tested to check our integrity. In daily life, humans face dilemmas that require the application of ethics to make decisions. There are ethical theories that one uses to base their arguments for choice of actions, but the ethic’s rational principles of right and wrong of what people should do must apply.
There are various scenarios where ethics have been applied to make a decision. A classic example is John, a neighbor who is married with two kids. His wife, Jane, owns a private school as the director. John is the superintendent of police in the district in which his wife’s school is located. John’s children, Mercy and Mark, attend the school their mother, Jane, owns. The school grows vegetables which are used for cooking pupils’ food. It happened one day; Jane instructed the groundsman to spray pesticides on the vegetables. The cooks were unaware whether the vegetables were sprayed with chemicals and prepared the vegetables for supper. Students, after taking supper, began to complain of stomach poisoning. Their situation worsened, and thirty students were hospitalized, excluding John’s children. The parents were outraged and reported the case to the superintendent of the police who was John. The accusations were filed against the school’s director for his negligence in protecting the student and even claimed Jane knew what she was doing for her children were never affected. The accusers demanded that the school be closed or the arrest of the director.
John knew he had to do the right thing, or his reputation would be ruined. He had a dilemma to choose whether protect his wife and school or let one go, either close the school or protect the wife. The ethical standard obligated John to protect the people of his district from assault and fraud, which his wife was associated with having committed and also, he had the right to defend his wife. John declared a conflict of interest, transferred the case to his senior, and swore not to intervene in the investigations.
Reference
Blaga, P. (2019). Ethical considerations in human resource training based on e-learning. Curentul Juridic, 79(4), 42-51. Web.