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DS3009 – ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ASSIGNMENT 1 : INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
HARIPREM A/L TAMILCHELVAN
111091 – 06227 – 010
Ethics can be defined as the reflective process by which individuals,
social groups and social institutions evaluate their actions from the
perspective of moral principles and values. For example in the Queen v.
Dudley and Stephens case, in order to escape death from hunger, kills the
innocent boy for the purpose of eating his flesh, is guilty of murder, although
at the time of the act he is in such circumstances that he believes and has
reasonable. However, this is unethical because every human has dignity to
live a life no matter in any hard circumstances. Social Responsibility is an
ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual,
has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a
duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a
balance between the economy and the ecosystem. There are many ideas
and theories I learnt from this subject which have its own moral values. One
of the greatest ethical ideal that impressed me is “utilitarianism”.
The utilitarianism theory focuses on selecting the best act that offers
the best consequences of an individual. Utilitarian’s does not examine the
differences in a chosen act that is based on moral issues. They instead focus
on the specific individual who is performing the act. Utilitarianism will focus
on morality only if the action is considered an ideal act but if the action is not
a preferred act, then morality does not play a role. Likewise, in utilitarianism
ethics is not viewed when making a decision because all decisions are based
on the best result for an individual. Besides that, utilitarianism ethics
emphasize that action should be morally beneficial to a group. This course of
ethics is often known as “the greatest good for the greatest number” or
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simply put, “the greater good” . In other words, the consequence of any
ethical action should be beneficial for all by mass appeal.
Utilitarianism impressed me because it is defined as putting the good
of other people before you. A good example of this would be a footballer
that has been playing for his university team and has an offer to go and play
for a team that is much better, but realizes that if he was to leave that his
team would be left for the wolves. A person that believes in the
utilitarianism theory would stay and play for the team money aside, because
they love the game and knows that the team needs them, therefore putting
the good of the team before their own good. Utilitarianism theory suggests
that an action is morally right when that an action produces more total utility
for the group than any other alternative.
Bentham proposed an equation which gave huge impact on
utilitarianism which is “Happiness = Pleasure – Pain”. Bentham said that,
“The principle of utility aims to promote happiness which is the supreme
ethical value . Nature has placed us under the governance of two sovereign
masters, pain and pleasure . An act is ‘right’ if it delivers more pleasure
than pain and ‘wrong’ if it brings about more pain than pleasure.” Actions
are right in proportion when they tend to promote happiness, wrong when
they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” When Bentham talks about
happiness, he refers to pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness,
pain and the privation of pleasure. According to Bentham's theory, the
Rightness of an action entirely depends on the value of its consequences.
That is why the theory is also described as consequentialist.
Ulilitarianism may also apply in the medical field. There are many
utilitarian arguments that seeks to justify such complicity on stem cell
research. This kind of issue arises because of embryonic cell usage in the
research. A neglected element in the current debate is that of moral
complicity. If we assume the personhood of the embryo, and that killing an
embryonic human being is a moral evil, then those who provide reason,
circumstance, and means for the act share complicity with that evil. There
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are two major themes that lead to the debate. First is the sanctity of human
life. Many object to the destruction of embryos to obtain human embryonic
stem (hES) cells, since they believe that embryos are human persons, and
thus have basic human rights. The second theme is the utilitarian rationale
for the use of such embryos, since“they are going to be destroyed anyway.”.
If one assumes that frozen embryos are going to be discarded anyway, why
not utilize them for research? Even if one is distressed by the destruction of
an embryo, isn’t it better if some good can come from it? The utilitarian
argument seems to make some sense, and deserves a thoughtful response.
After many debates, they stand with their argument saying that “the act of
destroying embryos is a moral evil, because embryos are in fact human
persons” (Dennis 2008). Many potential issues may arise apart from stem
cell such as genetically modified organism, and eugenics or baby designing.
Apart from the medical field, utilitarianism may apply for political
background. There are few successful leaders which hold utilitarianism as
their key of success such as Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela had strong
ethical values through having a heart and soul of leadership by consistently
advising his followers to adopt a peaceful course of action and to avoid all
violence, Nelson Mandela as a lawyer, voluntarily represented many
detainees under the ANC whilst he was volunteer-in-chief for the ANC, after
he was released he showed Utilitarianism leadership through soldiering
ahead to fight for apartheid and became the first black Democratic president
in South Africa under the ANC, he had the morals to continue fighting against
apartheid (Denenberg, 1995).
From my above discussion, we can see how utilitarianism is actually
holding a very strong position in different fields such as medicine, politics,
even in business. Utilitarianism doesn’t discriminate or encourage egoism. It
is wrong to harm others to benefit yourself because everyone counts. That’s
the reason why people are opposing the stem cell research. Immanual Kant
always stated that murder is always a murder even tough we are in a very
hard situation. By killing an embryo is still considered murder and unethical.
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To conclude, my discussion, in order to know if something is morally
preferable for a utilitarian, we must ask to ourself whether this will give us
benefits or more negative impact? If the answer is more benefits, then it is
morally preferable and ethical.
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References
1. Cunningham PC. The Right to Patent a Human Being: Fact, Fiction, or Future Possibility? Retrieved from http://www.cbhd.org/resources/aps/cunningham_02-06-03.html. Accessed February 5, 2007. The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, 2003.
2. Beckwith F. From Personhood to Bodily Autonomy: The Shifting Legal Focus in the Abortion Debate. In: Kilner J, Cameron N, Schiedermayer D (Eds). Bioethics and the Future of Medicine. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1995.
3. Complicity and Stem Cell Research : Countering the Utilitarianism Argument. Dennis M.Sulivan, Aaron Costerisan, Vol 24, 2008
4. Johnson, Robert. “Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 17 May 2011. (Section 5, The Formula of the Universal Law of Nature.) Last updated 2008.
5. Baker, L (2002). The Heart and Soul of Leadership. Australian Institute of Management, Roseville, NSW, Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd.
6. Ethical Realism : Moral Theories (Normative Theories of Ethics). JW Gray. August 2008. Retrieved from http://ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/ethical-theories/
7. Wise Geek : Stem Cell research. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-stem-cell-research.htm
8. The Ethics of Virtue and the Ethics of Right Action by Rachels. Page 157.9. DS3009 Ethics and Social Responsibility Lecture notes Rahman Ab.Nilai
University, Jan 2013.