CHAPTER 6

Applied Ethics

Learning Objectives

At the end of this chapter, the learners are expected to:

1. Define and discuss applied ethics;

2. Classify and explain the branches of applied ethics;

3. Provide ethical issues on various branches of applied ethics; and

4. Critique different types of ethical issues on various branches of applied ethics.

This portion is what we call Applied Ethics. It is the most practical part of the
three divisions of ethics. It is the actual application of various moral principles or ethical
theories to choose an appropriate moral or ethical action in a given issue.

Applied ethics is divided into different areas, such as,

1. Ethics in Business or the discussion on proper ethical behaviour in a corporate world.

2. Professional Ethics which refers to what professionals and managers must do in their
workplace.

3. Bioethics focuses on what is good and bad focuses on what is good and bad to
human and non-human lives.

4. Sexual Ethics speaks of issues concerning homosexuality, premarital sex and

contraception etc.

5. Cyber Ethics it tries to respond on issues that involve Information or computer age.

The section of this book gives the students the opportunity to respond to several
issues in the form of a debate, panel discussion or inter-active discussion. They have all
the liberty to plan on how to do it.

The objectives of this activity is to train the students to be more critical in dealing
with ethical issues they regularly encounter, witness or personally experience in society,
and to respond appropriately using various moral principles accessible to them, and
finally, to widen their perspective in dealing with ethical issues in the future.
Branches of Applied

1. Ethics in Business

What does business ethics mean? What is the objective of business ethics? What is the
scope of business ethics?

The primary objective of business ethics is to identify and examine the moral
obligations of businesses and their managers to their workers in their workplace and
their responsibilities in society. It consist of set of appropriate rules of conducts to
prevent any violation of business companies regarding the generation of profits, labour
laws and paying taxes, In short, business ethics means to do business with human
heart, to give happiness to workers, consumers and society, and generate profit early.

So, the businessmen must see to it there is regular supply of good quality goods
and services at reasonable prices to their consumers. They must stay away from
entering in unfair trade practice like promoting deceptive advertisements, cheating in
weights and measures, black marketing, etc. They must give fair wages and provide
food working environments to their workers. They must not exploit their workers. They
must encourage competition in the market. They must protect the interest of small
entrepreneurs. They pay all their taxes regularly to the government. Thus, for Andrew
Crane, business ethics is the study of all types of situations, decisions and activities in
business where matters of right and wrong are dealt with. While Raymond C. Baumhart
says, the ethics of business is the ethics of responsibility.

The scope of business ethics consists of:

1. Ethics in Compliance. It is about obeying and staying to rules and authority because it
is the right thing to do and not because of fear of transgressing the law. Any
organizations that value high ethics obey with the laws not only in letter but go beyond
what is set or expected of them.

2. Ethics in Finance. This is about money matter. The issues in accounting like
misleading financial analysis. In securities fraud leading to manipulation of the financial
markets, under the table transaction, kickbacks, over billing of expenses, facilitation
payments and fake reimbursements.

3. Ethics in Human Resources. It involves employer-employee relationship, such as the

rights, duties and responsibility of an employer in a company, and the kind of discipline
required by an employer to its workers. Example, discrimination i.e. discrimination on
the bases of age, gender, race, religion, disabilities. Sexual harassment. Issues
surrounding the representation of employees and the democratization of the workplace
etc.
4. Ethics in Marketing. It refers to the moral principles behind the operation and
regulation of marketing. Like price fixing and price discrimination Anti-competitive
practices like manipulation of supply and selective dealing arrangements etc.
Misleading or content of advertisements, and black markets or gray markets.

5. Ethics of Production. It refers to the duties of a company to make sure that products
and production processes do not cause damage to the consumer. For example
defective products, pollution, some genetically modified food.

2. Professional Ethics

Professional ethics defines, clarifies, and assesses professional work and its
usual values. Professionals are categorized by means of expertise and their ability to
serve ideally. Their service ideal is referred to values that define the objectives of their
work, for example, a doctor's primary objective is to promote health and a soldier is to
protect the land constitutionally. All professions has its own service ideal connected with
the usual values professional. Besides, professional work entails also the virtuous
character of the professional. Engineering ethics can be studied in terms of safety,
health, and welfare of the public.

Professional ethics is a code of conduct applicable to different professions and is

set up by the expert members of such profession or professional organizations. The
underlying philosophy of having professional ethics is to make the persons performing
in such jobs to follow the sound, uniform ethical conduct. Hippocratic Oath undertaken
by medical students is one such example of professional ethics that is adhered by even
today.

Some of the important components of code of conduct are integrity, honesty,

transparency, respectfulness towards fellow workers, superiors and the job,
confidentiality, objectivity etc.

3. Bioethics

Bioethics is relatively similar to medical ethics. Medical ethics concerns with ethical
questions on different and highly developed medical practices and healthcare, such as,
abortion, contraception, stem cell research, gene therapy, organ transplant and
euthanasia, etc. It includes, generally, the well-being of animals and environment on
issues of moral status and protection.

4. Sexual Ethics

Sexual ethics refers to what is good and bad to human sexuality and the proper
and improper expression of human sexual behavior. It seeks to know and assess the
moral behavior of interpersonal relationships and sexual activities from the cultural,
social and philosophical point-of-view. For example, will you punish a rapist with capital
punishment? Will you allow teenage pregnancies? Are you in favor of extra-marital sex?
Is masturbation wrong? Is same sex marriage permitted in a Christian community?

5. Cyber Ethics

Cyber ethics is about what is good and bad to computers, how computer users or
netizens behave, how it must be used, and what are its effects to human beings and
society. In short, it is an ethical standards applied to computer users or netizens and the
online environment.

There are netizens who are very irresponsible in cyberspace. They think there is
no law governing in cyber world and nobody will know their identity. So, they post
obscene images, spread viruses, hack private account in social media and do cyber
bullying, to mention a few. In fact, the law also governs the internet and anybody who
misbehaves in cyber space will be apprehended by the state. Thus, anybody who uses
the internet must respect fellow users and be responsible.

Samples of Ethical issues

1. What if you have a close friend who is in a committed relationship, and you discover
that her or his partner is secretly sexually involved with another person? Would you tell
your friend about the betrayal, or confront the partner?

2. You started for market in a hot sunny day. You wanted a pedicab to move the place.
Suddenly you saw a very thin old man with his pedicab waiting eagerly for his
passenger. You feel for him how he can move his pedicab alone and with you on it God
forbid. But wait, this is his work of earning. If you don't get on it how he will earn for his
bread for his family and for his living. You are stuck. He looks at your face waiting for
your response. What will you do?

3. I promised a friend I'd meet her for lunch. Promises are ethically important. But on the
way to lunch I saw another friend who was sick not dying but quite ill- and who asked
me to help her get to the hospital. She could probably get there on her own, but is quite
upset and would really like my help. Which friend should have priority?

4. Grandma asked me if I like the sweater she gave me. It's ugly, I said to myself.
Should I tell her the truth and hurt her feelings or lie to her and deceive her. What
should I do?

5. My teacher asked me to take her class record in the faculty room. When I entered the
room, I noticed I was just alone. New delivered office supplies like papers and pens
were on top of the principal's table. I said to myself, if I took 2 pens and 20 pieces of
bond papers for personal use, they would never know it. What will you do?
6. You are an eyewitness to a crime: A man has robbed a bank, but instead of keeping
the money for himself, he donates it to a poor orphanage that can now afford to feed,
clothe, and care for its children. You know who committed the crime. If you go to the
authorities with the information, there's a good chance the money will be returned to the
bank, leaving a lot of kids in need. What do you do?

7. You are a doctor at a top hospital. You have six gravely ill patients, five of whom are
in urgent need of organ transplants. You can't help them, though, because there are no
available organs that can be used to save their lives. The sixth patient, however, will die
without a particular medicine. If s/he dies, you will be able to save the other five patients
by using the organs of patient 6, who is an organ donor. What do you do?

8. You're involved in a two-car crash on your way to work one morning in which you
accidentally hit and kill a pedestrian. As you get out of the car, you are intercepted by a
tearful woman who seems to think that she hit and killed the pedestrian. You're not sure
why she thinks she hit the person, but she is convinced. There's only you, the woman,
and the person you hit on the road; there are no witnesses. You know that whoever is
deemed responsible will probably be sent to jail. What do you do?

9. The father with a child needing life-or-death surgery must choose whether to steal the
needed funds from his best friend's company or watch his child die. What will you do?

10. A doctor who strongly believes in the sanctity of life has to choose whether to save
the mother or the unborn baby in a life and death situation. Who will you choose?