Making Ethical Decisions At Great Personal Risk

Steve Rigg and Richard Caruso believed that becoming whistleblowers was the only option to end the abuse at Corcoran State Prison because they believed that the Department of Corrections was covering up the abuses at the prison (Dryburgh, 2009). Moreover, they decided that turning to the FBI and to the media was the only way in which their accusations of abuse would become part of public record (Dryburgh,

People from all walks of life face many ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas have consequences. Our worldview determines how we deal with these dilemmas, and guides us to the right decisions. In this essay, I will examine an ethical issues through my Christian worldview. I will also present other viewpoints, and compare them to mine.

Steve Rigg and Richard Caruso were prison guards at the Corcoran State Prison in San Joaquin, California in 1988. Corcoran State Prison was the most dangerous maximum-security for violent inmates resided in, they stayed in their own cells all days. Those dangerous inmates only had one hour allowed of exercise in the Security Housing recreation yard. Rigg and Caruso were correctional officers were on their duties in the Department of Security Housing Unit (SHU.) During their shift, they witnessed the death of inmate, Preston Tate. Tate was fighting against other inmates and then shot by a correctional officer unethically. From this moment, it changed their ethnical reflections and became whistleblowers.

“Objectively public administrators are accountable to both their superiors and the citizenry— proximately and routinely to the former but ultimately and more importantly to the latter” (Cooper, 2012, p. 198). A situation at Corcoran State Prison was challenged with a situation wherein dual obligations conflicted. Corcoran State Prison became the center of a serious ethical scandal that consisted of illegality, injustice, endangerment, corruption, and conspiracy. Two corrections officers of Corcoran, Steve Rigg and Richard Caruso, were faced with the question of where their loyalty lies— with their superior or with the citizens they serve?

In the case of the California’s Corcoran State Prison the prisoners were being mistreated. The situation that brought this case to the forefront was Dryburgh (2009) found that “Preston Tate was shot and fatally wounded by a corrections officer after Tate and his cellmate fought against two rival Hispanic gang member. Tate death was at the hands of a prison guard prompted two whistle – blowers to approach the FBI with tales of abuse and brutality toward inmates by correction officers”. Moreover, this was not the first time that an inmate had been shot by a correctional officer.

Review “Just pucker and blow: An analysis of corporate whistleblowers” in Chapter 2. Please respond to the following:

Introduction: Although education is perceived to be society’s great equalizer, this is dependent on school leaders’ ability to manage short and long term conflict. School reform efforts, bomb threats, inadequate yearly process, and teacher turnover are among a few of the factors which can interrupt the educational process. In order to minimize these disruptions, as well as to avoid catalyzing future challenges, it is necessary for leaderships to resolve conflict through ethical decision making.

Professionals in all fields experience ethical problems especially in health care. In fact, ethical issues arise in government, industry, science, and academia (Steneck, 2004). Ethical issues can be see in every decision making process which often involves competing goals and motives (Werhane, 2002) Ethical decision making (EDM) requires a number of complex cognitive processes in which people must assess the effectiveness of alternative courses of action in the context of their understanding of the problem and the relevant rules and guidelines involved (Miner & Petocz, 2003). Occupational therapists (OT) have increased autonomy to meet the clients and provide unrestricted practice in today's healthcare

Child abuse is a serious preventable health concern in the United States (CDC, 2015). The CDC (2015) reports studies indicate 1 in 4 children suffer from maltreatment in their lifetime. More than 1500 children died from abuse or neglect in the United States in 2013 (CDC, 2015). The case study entitled Make the Best Choice deals with three times on maltreatment of a child, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse (CDC, 2015). The purpose of this post is to discuss the ethical principle involved in the aforementioned case study. I will also discuss the nurse’s ethical and legal obligations to the patient and the options available to the nurse. Finally, I will discuss my opinion of the case study.

Ethics and ethical decision making play a large role in the duties of the coroner, everything they can affects someone or something. The main ethic would be confidentiality; the only topics that are not confidential are cause and manner of death. Any other information can only be given to legal next of kin. For example, if the media call asking about a homicide the only information the office will release is the cause and manner of death. However, if the decedent’s next of kin calls we are able to release any and all information to them.

Whistle blowing in organizations can be an outstanding source of needed information to the organization. On the other side, that same information that is delivered can have a negative effect on the employee that has decided to take matters in to their own hands and inform management of potential unethical behavior. An article called “Nonprofit whistle-blower employee nets $1.6 million retaliation award” written by Tricia Gorman is in reference to an employee whistle-blower that her place of employment violated the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act, which is part of the organizations policy for hostile work environment.

Jackson and Raftos (1997) referred to whistle blowing as an avenue of last resort. Employees find themselves in these situations when the authorities at their organisations have failed to take actions on reported issues affecting that organisation. Wimot (2000) likened whistleblowing to a spectrum. At one end of this spectrum whistleblowing would only cause minimal pain and scars on the stakeholders and organisation while on the other end is the worst scenario where the whistleblowing effects are turbulent and often experienced to be negative to all those involved (ibid).

Before that question can be answered; I must identify and define what the term ethical is (A. Puente, personal communication, November 17, 2015). According to Dictionary.com (n.d.) it is defined as:

The first thing we as staff, legal assistants, paralegals, or attorneys can do, is educate ourselves on all the ways the abuse may take place and what abuse may initially or develop into “looking like.” So, in this scenario we are asked to identify the professional responsibility red flags, that should be immediately identified and alerted to when Ruthann and Jay entered the office. To respond correctly to this in an immediate sense, upon when they enter the office, I have to honestly say, I would have to put my suspicions aside at the immediate entrance and maintain a neutral interaction with Ruthanne and Jay.

The traps I am most likely to fall into when evaluating something or someone are trusting too