How do ethics affect your life?

Answer 1

Ethics is not just knowing right from wrong, but understanding the factors behind choices we make every day, especially when right vs. wrong is less clear.

We are bombarded today with different types of ethics. As just some examples:

1. Work Ethics
2. Industry Ethics
3. Medical Ethics
4. Bio-technology ethics
5. Nursing Ethics
6. etc.

Whether a teen, adult, or senior citizen, we all face ethical decisions every day. One need not be a professional -- or even be employed -- to come face to face with decisions involving ethics.

As an example: Tommy always stops at a corner store before going to his high school. The store is owned by an older couple who rely on the store's income to pay their bills and pay for medical expenses. But, many students find the older man to be grouchy and stern and few students like him much. The woman seems nice, except that she moves slowly which annoys many of the kids. Today when Tommy pays for his Orange Juice, 2 granola bars, and the latest sci-fi magazine, he hands over a $10.00 bill and impatiently waits while the woman 'makes change'. Then, one at a time, she counts the bills back into his hand. Tommy guesses his change will be about $4.90 but the woman counts back $14.50 in change, and turns to wipe up a counter. For a second, Tommy thinks of just taking it. But--- he quickly changes his mind. He realizes that stores rely on income, especially small privately owned stores. He turns back and tells the woman she gave him too much change.

As another example: Mary Sue wants to get a new outfit; she has a big date coming up. But her mom won't pay to buy anything new, telling Mary Sue she has to make do with one of the many outfits in her closet. A friend, though, tells Mary Sue she should take money from her savings account, buy a new dress, hide it from her mother, wear the dress for her date--then-- "Just return it!" the friend says. Mary Sue thinks that's a grand idea and goes the very next day to buy the dress, which she hides at her friend's house. The day after her date, she takes the receipt and dress and tries to return it to the store. But the cashier notices the white marks of deodorant on the underarms and smells perfume coming from the fabric. She knows the dress was worn. But instead of stating this, the cashier first says, "We can't accept back clothing that's been worn." At that moment, Mary Sue has her last chance to be ethical. She already broke ethical rules along the way, but this is a last chance. Does she admit she wore it? Or, does she try to argue and become nasty?

Medical and nursing ethics often center around either "difficult cases" or -- professional mistakes. A difficult case might be what to with a premie infant born with an unusual chronic condition which is known to result in death. A recent case in Canada involved a child under 2 years old who was afflicted with the same terminal condition that killed his brother 3 years before. This boy was on a ventilator and would not be able to breathe if it was removed. Due to long term medical costs (primarily), the hospital petitioned a Canadian court for permission to remove the ventilator and let the boy die. The parents argued that no one but God has the right to dictate when death should occur, and that removing the breathing tube would result in a frightening and painful 4 minutes of suffocation before the child would go unconscious, and then die. A hospital in the United States agreed to assume the boy's care, rather than the proposed Canadian decision to let the child die. So, very often, ethical decisions in medicine revolve around costs and payment, as well as personal ethics.

For medical or nursing mistakes, ethics is a little different. Professionals must have strong professional ethics, as well as personal ethics. That means, when a mistake occurs, professional and personal ethics should be strong enough that the professional is willing to admit the mistake. Most mistakes in hospitals and nursing homes would (or could) go unnoticed and unreported-- unless the patient or family is very aware, or unless the mistake leads to death and the death is suspicious. Probably the biggest mistake is that a patient was prescribed or was given (or both) the wrong medication. This could easily be covered up, if a doctor or nurse choose to do so. But, instead, a nurse or doctor can basically report their own wrong act. By practicing good ethics, the patient can be observed and treated if the wrong medicine causes problems later.

The same ethics apply to all employees, in any job, including jobs for teenagers. We all know people who show up for work, punch in on the clock, then-- disappear for hours. Maybe they know a storage room where they sleep. Or, maybe they know where cameras won't catch them being lazy and not working. Some air traffic controllers recently (April 2011) got in trouble because they were caught sleeping on the job. But whether in an airport tower, or in a fast food restaurant, some employees can try to beat the system and earn money without doing their work. This is called "poor work ethics"-- and it's a form of cheating that ends up "costing" everyone (not just that employer or company). Employers can't run effectively when employees don't have strong personal and work ethics.

The examples go on and on. A key to understanding ethics is to watch for and hear the voice inside yourself when you are in situations that you *could* do something wrong and think you wouldn't be caught doing it. If your thoughts before doing an action make you feel nervous, afraid, afraid of being caught, or feeling that you'll "get one over" on someone else, it's likely you are breaking an ethical boundary. It's more than just your conscience or knowing right from wrong. Ethics involves doing what is right, even if you temporarily feel you'd be doing better to do something wrong. But, people find that when they do follow strong ethical principles--including admitting when we've done the wrong thing or make a serious mistake-- that they actually feel much better about themselves. There is a particular kind of pride involved when you maintain strong personal ethics in all areas of life, whether at home, school, in a job or in a relationship.