Casuistry and Principlism: The Convergence of Method in Biomedical Ethics

Casuistry and principlism are two of the leading contenders to be considered the methodology of bioethics. These methods may be incommensurable since the former emphasizes the examination of cases while the latter focuses on moral principles. Conversely, since both analyze cases in terms of mid-level principles, there is hope that these methods may be reconcilable or complementary. I analyze the role of principles in each and thereby show that these theories are virtually identical when interpreted in a certain light. That is, if the gaps in each method are filled by a concept of judgment or Aristotelian practical wisdom, these methods converge.     

Perceived Organizational Ethics and the Ethical Decisions of Sales and Marketing Personnel

Using a scenario-based approach, this study analyzed data collected from marketers with sales backgrounds and investigated the impact of perceived organizational ethics on their ethical issue recognition, ethical judgments, and ethical behavioral intentions. The results indicated that perceived organizational ethics, which was operationalized with two separate measures, was positively related to both the ethical judgments and expressed behavioral intentions of respondents. Further, ethical issue recognition was positively associated with ethical judgments and expressed behavioral intentions, and ethical judgments were positively related to ethical behavioral intentions. The findings suggest that, in order to enhance sales professionals’ ethical reasoning, organizations should focus on developing an ethical context that is relevant to the issues confronted by sales professionals in their work and that is as specific as possible with regard to these ethical dilemmas.     

Ethics and Counseling Decisions

Although some behavioral scientists and practitioners contend that man has no genuine moral choices to make, common sense and philosophical reflection ineluctably affirm the moral nature of man. When young people are faced with moral decisions, they often seek the assistance of a counselor. Although such counselors are routinely expected to aid clients in making decisions about their education and their careers, there is considerably less agreement about their responsibility for helping students to make moral choices. The central thesis of this article is that a knowledge of ethical theories, the practical principles which flow from them, and the method of decision-making which they indicate will enable the counselor to assist his clients with their moral problems.     

Making Choices: Ethical Decisions in a Global Context

The changing milieu of research—increasingly global, interdisciplinary and collaborative—prompts greater emphasis on cultural context and upon partnership with international scholars and diverse community groups. Ethics training, however, tends to ignore the cross-cultural challenges of making ethical choices. This paper confronts those challenges by presenting a new curricular model developed by an international team. It examines ethics across a very broad range of situations, using case studies and employing the perspectives of social science, humanities and the sciences. The course has been developed and taught in a highly collaborative way, involving researchers and students at Zhejiang University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Brown University. The article presents the curricular modules of the course, learning outcomes, an assessment framework developed for the project, and a discussion of evaluation findings.     

Ethical Specificities: Repositioning Indian Ethics

The essay is a review discussion of Indian Ethics in the context of a recent volume of essays. The attempt is to identify some of the issues that are now on the frontier of Indian ethics or that are likely to appear on that frontier in the coming years. Sasheej Hegde  teaches sociology at the University of Hyderabad, India. His work straddles many disciplines and sociohistorical settings, although in recent times he has been concerned with formulating a comparative agenda on law and ethics.     

Positive Rights and the Cosmopolitan Community: A Rights-Centered Foundation for Global Ethics

The recent transnational wave of destruction that was caused by the earthquake-induced tsunamis in South East Asia has raised the issue of global justice in terms of the rights of victims to expect aid relief and the moral responsibility of the rest of the world to provide it. In this paper I will discuss the issue of global ethics in terms of positive rights that people have to assistance from others when they cannot provide such assistance themselves. The main object of the paper is to demonstrate that positive rights are universal and global in scope and cannot therefore be restricted by any national, religious, cultural or other social boundaries. Such rights provide a rational and ethical foundation for global justice that is cosmopolitan. The argument for the position offered in the paper will be broadly based on the moral philosophy of Alan Gewirth.1 1. The sources referred to in this paper with regard to Gewith's moral philosophy will, in the main, be: Alan Gewirth, Reason and Morality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) and Alan Gewirth, The Community of Rights (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). For ease of reference, Reason and Morality will be referred to in the body of the paper as RM and Community of Rights as CR.      

Kitchener's Principle Ethics: Implications for Counseling Practice and Research

This extensive literature review examining the influence of K. S. Kitchener's (1984) introduction of principle ethics on counseling and psychology ethics notes the ultimate practicality of principle ethics. The authors maintain that although a strong influence of principle ethics in the area of counselor education emerges through the review, there is little clear evidence of influence in the areas of counseling research or practice. A primary reliance in the counseling professional literature on K. S. Kitchener's original work has likely resulted in a static understanding of the concepts and a concomitant theory–to–application knowledge gap. Implications include a more thorough and ongoing bridging between counseling ethics, philosophical ethics and practice, and a more overt presence of principle ethics.     

作为生命伦理学基本原则的完整性

现代生物医学和生物科技的快速发展给人们带来更多选择的同时,也意味着对人的干预日益增强。对人的干预是否具有合理性以及什么样的干预才是合理的,只有借助人的完整性概念才能获得伦理论证和辩护。完整性概念首先描述了人类存在的基本状态。描述性的完整性概念同时又具有规范性含义：人之身心的完整性要求不被破坏和得到维护、受到尊重。作为生命伦理学基本原则的完整性要求：禁止对个体完整性侵犯的强迫性干预;促进治疗性自我申诉型干预的实现来保护人的完整性;允许自我增强型干预来尊重人的完整性。     

Ethical Implications in Screening for Ethics Violations

The process of admittance to membership in a psychological organization is an opportune time to take into consideration any questionable behavior in the professional background of a prospective member. Membership application forms of the American Psychological Association (APA) and 58 affiliated organizations are reviewed to determine the kinds of questions that are asked about ethical misconduct. The nature of the inquiry differs considerably from one association to another, with a preponderance of organizations avoiding any direct questions about professional ethics. Discussion is focused on how these different screening strategies impact on the applicant and the organization. There is a demonstrated need for appropriately formulated queries. A case is made for resolving current inconsistencies among associations by adhering to a unified procedure in the ethical screening of psychologist applicants.     

On Using Ethical Theories to Teach Engineering Ethics

Many engineering ethics classes and textbooks introduce theories such as utilitarianism and Kantianism (and most others draw from these theories without mentioning them explicitly). Yet using ethical theories to teach engineering ethics is not devoid of difficulty. First, their status is unclear (should one pick a single theory or use them all? does it make a difference?) Also, textbooks generally assume or fallaciously ‘prove’ that egoism (or even simply accounting for one’s interests) is wrong. Further, the drawbacks of ethical theories are underestimated and the theories are also otherwise misrepresented to make them more suitable for engineering ethics as the authors construe it, viz. the ‘moral reasoning’ process. Stating in what various theories disagree would allow the students to frame the problem more productively in terms of motive–consequence or society–individual dichotomies rather than in terms of Kant–utilitarian.     

A Preface to Ethics:

This essay outlines a new preface for ethics demanded by the massive developments of the global age. It does so in and through the comparative use of “myths” to explicate the lived structure of experience. The essay begins by isolating main features of global dynamics, including proximity, the compression of the world and the expansion of consciousness, and also global, cultural reflexivity. In the second step of the “preface,” it is argued that globality itself is a moral space in which peoples must orient their lives. It is a moral space defined by the massive extension of human power in the modern world. In light of the challenge that global dynamics and the extension of human power now pose, the essay then isolates, methodologically, options for developing a global ethics, and advocates a distinctly hermeneutical approach. This approach is practiced in the last section of the “preface” by engaging ethically the biblical “myth” of creation and its reinterpretation in an epitome of Jesus's Torah teaching. The intention is to show how current religious thought can speak to massive challenges in a distinctive way. It is, again, to offer a preface to ethics.     

From Environmental to Ecological Ethics: Toward a Practical Ethics for Ecologists and Conservationists

Ecological research and conservation practice frequently raise difficult and varied ethical questions for scientific investigators and managers, including duties to public welfare, nonhuman individuals (i.e., animals and plants), populations, and ecosystems. The field of environmental ethics has contributed much to the understanding of general duties and values to nature, but it has not developed the resources to address the diverse and often unique practical concerns of ecological researchers and managers in the field, lab, and conservation facility. The emerging field of “ecological ethics” is a practical or scientific ethics that offers a superior approach to the ethical dilemmas of the ecologist and conservation manager. Even though ecological ethics necessarily draws from the principles and commitments of mainstream environmental ethics, it is normatively pluralistic, including as well the frameworks of animal, research, and professional ethics. It is also methodologically pragmatic, focused on the practical problems of researchers and managers and informed by these problems in turn. The ecological ethics model offers environmental scientists and practitioners a useful analytical tool for identifying, clarifying, and harmonizing values and positions in challenging ecological research and management situations. Just as bioethics provides a critical intellectual and problem-solving service to the biomedical community, ecological ethics can help inform and improve ethical decision making in the ecology and conservation communities.

Teaching Ethics to Engineers: Ethical Decision Making Parallels the Engineering Design Process

In order to fulfill ABET requirements, Northern Arizona University’s Civil and Environmental engineering programs incorporate professional ethics in several of its engineering courses. This paper discusses an ethics module in a 3rd year engineering design course that focuses on the design process and technical writing. Engineering students early in their student careers generally possess good black/white critical thinking skills on technical issues. Engineering design is the first time students are exposed to “grey” or multiple possible solution technical problems. To identify and solve these problems, the engineering design process is used. Ethical problems are also “grey” problems and present similar challenges to students. Students need a practical tool for solving these ethical problems. The step-wise engineering design process was used as a model to demonstrate a similar process for ethical situations. The ethical decision making process of Martin and Schinzinger was adapted for parallelism to the design process and presented to students as a step-wise technique for identification of the pertinent ethical issues, relevant moral theories, possible outcomes and a final decision. Students had greatest difficulty identifying the broader, global issues presented in an ethical situation, but by the end of the module, were better able to not only identify the broader issues, but also to more comprehensively assess specific issues, generate solutions and a desired response to the issue.     

Professional Ethics of Software Engineers: An Ethical Framework

The purpose of this article is to propose an ethical framework for software engineers that connects software developers’ ethical responsibilities directly to their professional standards. The implementation of such an ethical framework can overcome the traditional dichotomy between professional skills and ethical skills, which plagues the engineering professions, by proposing an approach to the fundamental tasks of the practitioner, i.e., software development, in which the professional standards are intrinsically connected to the ethical responsibilities. In so doing, the ethical framework improves the practitioner’s professionalism and ethics. We call this approach Ethical-Driven Software Development (EDSD), as an approach to software development. EDSD manifests the advantages of an ethical framework as an alternative to the all too familiar approach in professional ethics that advocates “stand-alone codes of ethics”. We believe that one outcome of this synergy between professional and ethical skills is simply better engineers. Moreover, since there are often different software solutions, which the engineer can provide to an issue at stake, the ethical framework provides a guiding principle, within the process of software development, that helps the engineer evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different software solutions. It does not and cannot affect the end-product in and of-itself. However, it can and should, make the software engineer more conscious and aware of the ethical ramifications of certain engineering decisions within the process.