preview

Implications Of Ethical Theory

Good Essays

Ethical Theory
Author’s Name
Instructor’s Name

Ethical Theory
Introduction
Although humanity has always strived to understand the meaning of right and wrong, it is not any closer to getting any definite answers. However, people need beliefs and values to live their lives. They require a system of moral principles to make decisions. In other words, people consciously or unconsciously apply ethics in their daily lives, whether they believe in it or not. Whether people consider ethics to originate from religions, philosophies and/or cultures, nevertheless it provides a moral map for resolving ethical dilemmas (BBC, 2014). Thus, it is important to identify and differentiate the various ethical theories and their implications …show more content…

Thus, metaethics is not about discovering the right action or doing good, it is about how humans determine if something is good or not and whether we are obligated to take the right action or not (Sullivan & Pecorino, 2002).
Implications of Ethical Thinking
An ethical person is aware of the basic principles governing moral conduct and acts in consistency with those principles. Thus, ethical thinking provides people with a moral framework to work through their ethical dilemmas (Pecorino, 2000). For example, given a patient who has been in an irreversible coma for a long time and has no immediate family, is it morally justifiable to end his suffering by taking him off life support? Ethical frameworks guide the doctors to make a decision in a seemingly impossible situation where a person’s life is balanced with his suffering and the hospital’s resources.
From a moral non-realistic perspective, the decision depends upon the culture and beliefs of the people involved. Thus, the doctors might support mercy killing, in order to allow the patient to die with dignity, rather than force him to live and let him experience the deterioration of his organs. Therefore, in this case euthanasia is permitted, according to moral non-realists because it is best for the

Get Access