My ethical thinking...

What influences my ethical thinking--how do I want to live my life and more importantly, what life lessons can I teach my children to assure they grow up to be good people that contribute positively to the world?

I believe that I am most closely aligned with the Divine Command theory even though I am not an every week church-goer and forget to pray before meals and throw out the occasional cuss word. I believe in God, Satan and Hell. However, I don't think you have to practice any religion to abide by the same principles. People can act like Christians even if they don't believe in any higher power. If one of my children came home someday in the far away future and said they were not going to baptise their child, my grandchild, I would strongly disagree but would have to accept their decision.

In difficult decisions, I believe that decisions that would benefit the most people and the individual is a good rule of thumb to live by, but it can't cover every situation that comes up. What complicates this philosophy is the Trolley Problem... I could not put someone else to death by my own hands to save others. I just couldn't do it. However, if I was standing with my husband by the train track control panel and had to make a decision to derail the train to save 5 people and killing one person in the process, I would probably tell my husband to do it for me and would think he did the right thing. Of course, if the one person was someone I cared about, I would act selfishly and take the lives of the 5 people instead.


I believe in "what comes around, goes around." If you live your life as a good person, in the end, you will be rewarded. If not...you will not be rewarded. Being a good person includes taking time out for others, caring for animals and our Earth, showing compassion for others and taking care of our bodies and souls. It also means taking a stand for things you believe in or value, even if that means you are breaking the law.

I believe every situation calls for a different set of rules and the decision I make may be totally different that someone else's decision. I have learned that I must be more open-minded to how/why people have come up with a different outcome and respect their decision. I need to consider both sides--not everything is an open/shut case.

With all of that said, I don't think a person can truly fully operate by one theory alone. Every situation will require us to draw the conclusion from our traditions, experiences, societal expectations and upbringing to make the decision we feel most comfortable with.

Ethical Issues for Today

After reading Elie's remarks, I summarized that his theory is basically to treat others how you would want to be treated. Elie said "it is our relationship to the other that determines our humanity" and "we are duty bound to feel more responsible for those in need".

He put this in the simplist of terms with real examples and justified them with his own experiences. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. His experiences in the death camps and later, the refugee camps, spoke volumes about who he was as a man and the importance of defending our rights and promoting harmony in the world.

One issue challenged Elie and I am perplexed by his thoughts: He said "When can/must we ask our leaders, our President, to intervene in places where we have no vital interest? When should we "send our boys" to risk their lives?" Meaning, am I being selfish if I don't want to send our soldiers to war for a country I know or care nothing about? However, after reading the Moral Instinct article, I had to think twice about it. The Trolley Problem may contradict that thought. In that scenerio, a passerby is forced to make a decision when he sees a trolley car hurdling down the track headed toward 5 men working on the track. The passerby can flip the switch to divert the track headed for the 5 men, but in doing so, he has to kill another man on a different track. Is it better to sacrifice one to save 5? Can we send one soldier oversees and save the lives of hundreds?

This is all so difficult. As our President-elect takes office next week, I can only hope that he and his staff have the stomach for all of the tough decisions ahead.

Life's Destiny

This week was very interesting and difficult. Once again, the learning materials have opened my eyes to other perspectives and the viewpoints of others and reminded me of how I need to think more about the big picture than what's going on in my little world.


The abortion movie--to put words to how I felt after watching this is difficult. I did not know how an abortion was performed until I watched the video. (If you don't think about it--it doesn't exist)

What perplexed me the most was the role the nurse played in each of these abortions. On one hand, she was completely supportive, caring, and concerned for the patient and her well-being. I wanted to "like" her. On the other hand, how can she go to work and do this everyday without having it wear on her? How does she mentally prepare herself for her job every day? Does the nurse believe in a higher power? If so, how can she do her job?

Strangely enough, I did not feel the same way about the doctor. He was a robot through the whole procedure without emotion. He was so cold and clinical. Does he feel that he is "healing" or "curing" these women with the procedure he performed?

I am really trying to be more open-minded and look at every angle of the story. However, I just don't think that either of these young ladies thought this decision through and I don't believe that they really considered adoption as a realistic option. In my opinion, carrying the baby for 9 months and not being able to give it up after birth is a pretty lame excuse. They were being selfish. If they really cared for the baby, they would carry it, give birth, and give it up for adoption and try to put their feelings aside.

There were plenty of resources available to make adoption possible, even in the depressed economic area they lived in. Someone would wanted that child even if the mother didn't.

Last thought--I am very glad the Safe Haven law has been implemented. It gives mothers another option that wasn't available when this movie was filmed.

Presentations & Readings--Week 2

I have 2 thoughts on the presentations and readings:

1) In the Divine Command Theory presentation, it discusses the role of religion in moral reasoning. Specifically, it asks us if laws are just or righteous just because God ordains it? The example given in the presentation centered around Abraham allegedly being commanded by God to kill his firstborn son. If you believe the story of Abraham in this situation, then you would agree that religion doesn't always command what appears to be morally right.

My thought: If a person is a Christian and believes in God, then you would have to assume that they also believe in the devil or satan or another evil force. Just as God or a superior power could direct us to do good things or moral things, couldn't we also assume that the devil is directing us to do the immoral things?

The presentation states "religion may provide an individuals action but they must be justified by reasons beyond religion." In other words, we need "back-up" or another "right" reason other than religion. Could it be as simple as God directs the good and the devil directs the bad? And whichever path you choose to follow dictates your morality?

2) In my "End of Life" blog, I did not justify or provide other backup for the reason we took my mother off of life support. The reasons for this decision, "we didn't want to see her suffer", "she would have had no quality of life", "being in a coma is not living", etc., all still centered around our faith/religion and how she would have wanted to live.

If this makes any sense, I think that religion is part of Natural Law and guides what we think as individuals to be rational or logical.

I suppose now, Mr. Kashdan will ask what law the atheists follow if it's not religion?? Or who's to say that MY GOD is your satan? I am just having a hard time grasping this if we can't count religion as a basis for establishing our foundations as individuals, what is left? Even if a person doesn't believe in God or satan, something has to be in their life that is guiding them...

End of Life

This presentation was very thought-provoking and close to home for me, personally...


My father, me and my 6 siblings chose to end my mothers life in 1996 as she lay in a coma after only one day. She had some complications from breast cancer--an onset of pneumonia. She was able to speak, talk, move around, etc., work, etc. She was not dying--she was just sick. We were all thinking we would be bringing her home in a few days.


After being hospitalized for 2 days, she had a routine procedure performed to explore the cause of the pneumonia. The "routine procedure" went wrong and she lapsed into a coma. She was not able to speak for herself, care for herself, or communicate and was living only through the support of machines. The doctors said she would not come out of the coma. There was no quality of life for her in her future and she did not have a living will. We made the decision to end life support. She died within minutes of discontinuing support.


The End of Life Video gave an intriguing view of issues we face everyday. I don't think we, as a family, thought through the decision as thoroughly as we should have. I didn't know our decision to end her life could be considered a legal issue...the doctor never said our decision could have legal implications. I think the end result would have been the same, but there was no discussion of the different viewpoints.

What would have happened if my dad wanted to discontinue support but my siblings did not? What if we would have taken her off of life support, and she would have remained breathing on her own and in a coma? How long would we wait before asking for doctor-assisted suicide? What if my mom wouldn't have agreed with our decision? (We all agreed she wouldn't have wanted to live that that, and knowing her money-saving ways, she would have been telling us to quit "wasting" money on keeping her alive!)


After watching the video (twice!) I most agreed with the Rev. John Paris, even though I am not catholic. He said only God can predict our future. We can live our life but we will go back to God in the end. He agreed that if medicine held no hope for Hope or Faith, he would support letting them die. He didn't agree with those that said they were "killing" them by taking them off support.


I really don't like that word "killing". With my mom's end of life event, I have NEVER thought of it that way. I wish I hadn't heard it now...


Chapter 10 was awesome to read. However, I had some conflicting thoughts on the terms. I don't like the words Euthanasia (that's what you do to your dog that got hit on the road), Mercy death/mercy killing (the killing part is obvious) but I don't like the "mercy" term. That should be reserved for someone who as a person or being, who lived a sorry life. My mom was anything but "sorry".

So ultimately, my position is that if no medical treatment can help the person life without being in a vegetative state, I support letting them die. I like that Chapter 10 separated the terms when speaking of Euthanasia.

The article that I found that related to the End of Life video was a great find. It is about a man in Minnesota who is being forced by a court order to have electroshock therapy for treatment of psychotic episodes. It doesn't sound like the man has really hurt anyone and is probably more of a danger to himself than anything. During his psychotic episodes, he urinates anywhere and eats his own feces.

Man Fights Order To Undergo Electroshock Therapy
by Lorna Benson
Listen Now [8 min 55 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98273451

This relates to the End of Life Video because the patient, Ray Sandford, doesn't want the treatment. It makes him sick, he forgets who people are, and every treatment slowly eats away at part of his memory. He doesn't want to live like that. Reading the comments that came in after the story aired on NPR, it sounds like it is painful, humiliating and a horrible treatment. In my opinion, there would HAVE to be other treatment methods without inflicting pain and degrading another human. Even if it is determined that Ray is not legally competent to discuss his treatment, EST cannot be a lifelong treatment plan. It would likely kill him. ( I thought we banned Electric Shock Therapy???)


In the End of Life Video, a couple of scenarios surfaced regarding the physicians. One doctor would not give Faith drugs to end her life. Also, the doctors argued about whether or not to give baby Hope the feeding tube. Even if the patient could not speak for themselves, there appears to be discontent between the physicians themselves.


Conclusion: We spoke for my mom when she couldn't and operated under the Divine Command Theory. We let her die a natural death. Our belief system says we were giving her eternal life. We did not need anyone to condone, support or direct us to our final decision. We acted under our own rules of Utilitarianism. We decided that ending life support was the right thing to do in this situation at this time. The greatest amount of good was ultimately for my mom, as she has a life with God. The "bad" came for us, who have had to live our lives without her.

A spoof on Black Friday (from NPR)

The short clip listed below is from the NPR website poking fun and criticizing the crazed people who shop like it's a sport during the Christmas season for the "really good deal" or the "doorbuster" to be found on Black Friday. It puts human behavior into perspective and points out how foolish people have become worshipping the "act" of Christmas and taking a human life in the process.




I am one of those crazed shoppers. My sisters and I travel somewhere, usually Appleton, the day before Black Friday. We buy all the papers with the store flyers, lay them out on the hotel bed and scour them for hours while we make our lists. We will go to the store that night to "map it out", what area to go first, where is the item located, etc. (Years ago, we used to go to the store the night before and hide the items somewhere in the store, usually in the tote and garbage can aisle, and neatly store our prized goods until we can purchase them the next day.--They caught on to this devious plan and started covering the hot items with plastic until the day of the sale).




This was always a game for us. What deals could we get? How many other people are we beating out to get the coveted prize? It led us to buy things we didn't need or the kids didn't care about, overspend, and stress ourselves out. We went away from the point of getting our loved ones special gifts from the heart and commercialized it in a way that almost seems vile now, considering that a Black Friday store employee lost their life this year. To make matters worse yet, dozens of people walked/ran by the injured victim laying on the floor and did not stop to help. It appears that our Rules of Engagement, Ten Commandments, The 5 Pillars of Islam, or whatever we may follow as our guide is not working.




As it relates to the learning plan, I have a few thoughts:



1) The stores encourage unethical practices by enticing shoppers and inviting this type of behavior--they advertise these unbelievable deals to draw the masses, they keep the doors locked while making hundreds of people stand outside of a 3 foot door in the cold waiting anxiously for them to open. It's like making your kids wait until 8 pm on Christmas Day to open their presents.


2) What started out with good intentions (the myth of Santa Clause ) has since evolved into a holiday that makes most people wish Christmas didn't exist or are glad it only comes once a year. It has impacted society in the most negative of ways....


Outcome--putting this in to the relationship of the learning plan, I am committing myself to refrain from shopping the day after Thanksgiving, because it seems now to be immoral and unethical for me to do so and I don't want any part of it anymore. While Christmas will always be special at my house, Christmas's of the future are going to be different.

This frenzy is an example of non-consequentialism--I have never thought of the consequences of my decision to go shopping on Black Friday. I did not think there were any until now.


Brian Unger, the humorist that wrote this article did a great job comparing the shopper to a cheetah, stalking our prey in the jungle. Before this year's death, I would have laughed out loud hearing this statement. It's not funny anymore.

Forget The Gun And Other Shopping Tips by Brian Unger

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97650304#commentBlock

My ethical dilemna

Human Resource professionals are faced with ethical dilemma's frequently. People think that HR is a straight forward job--all you have to do is abide by and enforce the rules. Not so--nothing is black and white. Most situations that surface are gray and all have extenuating circumstances. Recently, I was faced with a work issue that challenged my faith, my profession and my Code of Ethics as an HR person.



Situation: An employee I'll call Butch, was on medical leave for about 8 weeks. Butch was very strong, had tattoos on his head and neck, lifted weights all the time, partied hard and was in to beefing up his body. He was intimidating and most employees tried to avoid him although everyone agreed he was harmless and people just blew him off most of the time.



Being the one to approve his medical leave, I knew that he was absent because his parents had him committed to a mental hospital. He was very unstable and made some threats against his family. I had kept in contact with his father during this time who was very open about Butch's problems and sure that his son has been "healed" and ready to return to work.



A few days before he was to return to work from his leave, he showed up at work and told several co-workers that he was going to kill his supervisor, named some other employees names, and seemed very aggressive (more than usual) to his co-workers. He then went into the office and spoke to the receptionist in an incoherent manner--like he was speaking "in tongue". She was a little frightened by him. He left the property shortly thereafter. He called me several hours later to tell me he was returning to work the next week and was released from his doctor and seemed perfectly normal to me. I did not know at the time of my conversation with him that he had done these other things earlier that day.



Here were my options:

1) Ignore the issue--Butch is harmless. Technically, he wasn't on work time and probably didn't say much worse than many do on a Friday night in the bar. But, what if something happened?

2) Call the cops and let them investigate.

3) Call his father and tell him to have Butch re-committed--we don't want him back.

4) Call his doctor and explain what Butch did. Tell him we don't think he's ready to return to work.

5) Be a coward and call Butch and tell him we don't have work for him and lay him off. Don't tell him the real reason why so he can't come back in anger and kill me. In other words, fire Butch just to be rid of him.



Butch violated company policy because he made threats concerning a supervisor and co-worker. This was pretty clear cut. However, I still felt like I would be doing an un-Christian-like thing if I fired him. After all, Butch was ill. He needed treatment, not to lose his job.



Long story short, we called the police, they investigated, but he was never charged with anything. We ended up terminating him based on violating company policy of our workplace violence policy.


I am still uncertain if we did the right thing. On one hand, I was scared of what he could do...he had a lot of issues. I didn't want to deal with him. On the other hand, it didn't help his situation at all by losing a good job and now he didn't have insurance to continue treatment.



This man has a girlfriend and a small child and I don't want to be responsible if/when he snaps. I (acting as a steward of the Company) took away his greatest chance of getting treatment for his condition. I hope we did the right thing...