Education

Solving An Ethical Dilemma

Author: Henry Smith
Posted on: 24 Sep 2019

Question 1

Table of Contents

After watching the girl hiding behind you and knowing that she is a thief, I get caught in an ethical dilemma: either I should tell her followers or save her. I would not tell the angry mob that I have not seen the little thief. The reason why I am saving her is that I do not find her actions to be immoral. My justifying reasons include her confession and the reason behind her action, which is that she has not eaten anything for a few days and the fact that her circumstances compel her to do an immoral act. Otherwise, she would not have done that.

Steps to Solve Ethical Dilemma

There are three steps to solving an ethical dilemma. In this scenario, I have solved the dilemma by following the given three steps (George & Lynn, 2008).

Step 1: Awareness of your values

First of all, I recalled all of the values and norms that I regard most. This stage does not include changing one’s values; instead, it means knowing them and giving them regard. Let’s say I appreciate honesty, decency, and politeness the most. In the given scenario the little girl was honest and upright with me, she told me that yes it was she, who stole the apple, whatever the reasons were. This stage is essential to recognise all of your values. I also consider stealing an unethical act that must not be done by anybody at any cost. But I know sometimes circumstances and situations are not up to the mark. Well, after becoming aware of my values, I start having a conflict between valuing honesty and devaluing stealing behaviour. So, I needed more information to remove the dissonance occurring within me further, so I moved to step 2.

Step 2: Selecting the theoretical model

Ethical issues are classified into two groups, including consequential theories and non-consequential theories (Shaw & Barry, 2013). According to the school of consequentialism, the outcomes and consequences of one’s actions matter morally. According to this view, ends justify the means; that is, an act is thought to be morally right based on the outcomes. Consequentialism states that whether an action is “right” or “wrong” depends upon the outcomes. This school of thought indicate that there is a standard by which one can quantify the consequences (usually “utility”) and endorse that the best technique is one that builds utility. For consequentialists, the ends dependably do legitimise the means.

Then there is an extension of consequentialism that is the utilitarian approach, as per this approach choices and judgments are made according to the good for people as it says the greatest good is for a large number of people. This is quite a close consequentialist approach since this is excessive given the proposition that consequences decide the profound quality of some actions. As per this approach, if the outcomes are profitable for countless, then it is alright to hurt a couple of people. This approach is ordinarily guided by the processed points of interest or harms for activity in light of the experimental confirmation. The opposite of consequential theories are non-consequential theories, and the most common is the deontological approach (Shapiro & Meslin, 2001, p. 140).

Deontology states that whether an action is “right” or “wrong” depends upon the real theme behind the action. A large number of people have a view that there are certain actions that are wrong in their real essence, and one can never justify them, for example, slaughtering somebody, torment, theft, etc. Deontological assumptions construct moral quality in light of specific obligations or commitments and claim that particular activities are naturally right or wrong, in themselves, regardless of the consequences. So, this approach is based on the actions rather than on their outcomes. According to this approach, a person must act according to the norms, values, and obligations that are by the moral principles. Another approach that is neither based on consequentialism nor non-consequentialism is ‘Virtue Ethics’ (Lau, 2010, 567; Walsham, 1995, 80).

Aristotle’s virtue ethics theory centres on the development of a good character as opposed to moral principles. This school of thought view is to have a belief that having an honest character encourages idealistic choices. To act from righteousness is to act from some specific motivation, so the character of the person is important. To state that specific ideas are important for moral choices is to state that the right consequences are based on the right choices. A modification of virtue ethics was given by Stole who presented in his Agent-based virtue ethics which state that any action is considered right if it has a virtuous motive rather a vicious motive.

According to this approach, the motivation of agents is fundamental, and actions are considered true as they do not have any malicious intent. This approach is different from the last one as the former focuses on the agent’s character, and this is based on the agent’s intention. Agent-based virtue ethics is solely based on the intentions of agent and according to which selecting whether an action is moral ‘right’, or ‘wrong’ depends entirely on the moral status of the motives and the intentions of the agent (vanZyl & DePaul, 2009, p. 105).

So, in this second step, I selected agent-based virtue ethics.

Step 3: Using the problem-solving process

I selected the agent-based virtue ethics to save the life of a little girl. I do not deny the fact that the act she has done was immoral, but I looked at the intention and motive of her unethical behaviour. For me, she was innocent as she was an orphan and did not have enough money to buy an apple. Secondly, she stole the apple as she was hungry for a few days. For me she is not the culprit, in fact, the real culprits are those who are responsible for a person’s immoral actions. I would prefer lying to the angry mob than to hand over the little girl to them that they’d cut off her hands. I would prefer saving the little girl’s life than making her accused of a criminal act that she was compelled to do because of her hunger.

Question 2

Job 1 is illegal as in the given ad of Job 1, the job is open for Middle-eastern (ethnicity), women (gender), aged 18-35 (age). However, it seems that it is a good way to recruit women by giving them the opportunity to be part of less advantaged groups. But in fact, it is positive discrimination that is sugar-coated in ‘positive action’. It is against the Equality Act 2010 to discriminate against anyone because of their sex, age, being married or in a civil partnership, being a transsexual person, being pregnant or on maternity leave, being disabled, or on the basis of race, ethnicity, and nationality, religion, sex, belief or lack of belief, sexual orientation. Positive discrimination has not been precisely mentioned in the Equality Act 2010, but in actuality, it is considered favouring the disadvantaged or minority group automatically over the advantaged or majority group without properly considering the merit. Positive discrimination can either be direct or indirect.

According to the s. One hundred fifty-nine of the Equality Act 2010, an employer can treat a candidate with protected characteristics (sex, ethnicity, or age) positively regarding recruitment, selection or promotion than someone who is equally qualified but does not belong to the group of people having protected characteristics. It is at the discretion of the employer that he thinks the group of individuals belonging to protected characteristics suffer a disadvantaged group in some particular way. Taking positive action is a good way to encourage them, but the employer must not allow the policy to treat people favourably or unfavourably on a case-by-case basis. A case of Kalanke was brought before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and Marshall had a view that positive discrimination against women breaches the Equal Treatment Directive 2006/54/EC. In the given Job ad, there is no act or intention to treat the so-called minority group to have a positive action. Rather, it is positive discrimination to mention gender, ethnicity, and age characteristics, and positive discrimination is not allowed in the UK.

Job 2 is legal according to Equality and Diversity laws in the UK. The job is offering a Media & Communication opportunity to individuals with disabilities. Although it seems that there is positive discrimination brought about by the recruiting company, it is not positive discrimination. Rather, it is a positive action. ‘Positive action’ is one of the government’s ranges of measurement with the aim of ending discrimination in the workforce. It is taken at two levels, recruitment and promotion, whereas the other level is for training the staff.

Positive action is a good practice that many recruiting companies follow to increase the participation of a certain group of people with unique or certain characteristics. Equality Act of 2010 allows employers to take positive action if they think that a certain protected characteristic is limited in a certain workforce, so the law allows individuals to take this by recruiting a candidate having that particular protected characteristic. Let’s say promoting a female over a male in the workplace when the predominant employees are males. According to the Equality Act 2010, s. 158, it is lawful for an employer to take some positive action for the compensation to the group of particular protected characteristics, for example, to people with disabilities as in the given job 2.

According to this act, there are some separate provisions that allow the recruiting parties to recruit and promote individuals with protected characteristics. According to s. 159 of the Act, positive action is legal if it is taken to encourage the individuals with protected characteristics and prefer them over another comparatively advantaged group of individuals; secondly, if it fulfils the people who share a protected characteristic and these needs are different than those who are not having the same protected characteristics; or to encourage individuals with protected characteristic to participate in such an activity in which the participation of those individuals is disproportionately low. In job 2, positive action was taken by the employed to recruit the disadvantaged group based on the characteristics of disability over the advantaged group of individuals who have no disability.

Question 3

The Professional Code of Conduct is based on a set of standard rules to promote best practices by protecting the public. These codes will describe the main goals of ABC Healthcare LTD (Hospitals & Healthcare) and will ensure that the staff is providing the best quality services with efficient care and support. This Code of Conduct describes the attitudes, behaviours, rules, and regulations that people expect from the staff of ABC Healthcare LTD. As a staff member, you are bound to maintain the quality of services and be responsible for your conduct not falling below the mentioned standards and guidelines. All the acts you perform at ABS Healthcare LTD should not provide any harm to the well-being and safety of people who are using healthcare facilities.

This Code of Conduct applies to you if you are working as staff at ABC Healthcare LTD. The intention of this code is not to limit the role of staff to follow this Code of Conduct only but to have a Code that is beyond some fixed criteria and generalised to all the roles where the staff is having contact with patients and people (AMHCA, 2010).

The Code of Conduct at ABC Healthcare LTD is given below.