Ethical Theory

An understanding of basic ethical theory is a necessary premise to any valid reasoning process. There may be no single solution to the problems presented in any individual case, but it does not follow that morally unjustified and poorly reasoned answers are beyond valid 

Over the past 30 years, the term principlism has been used to refer to Beauchamp and Childress (3) four principles approach to ethical issues. 

Principlism and the four principles with scope approach to medical ethics is one of the most useful, practical tools to aid decision making in ethical dilemmas within medicine and health care. One significant advantage of this system is its supposed universality. In theory, it is independent of personal philosophy, political beliefs, religion, morality, or life stance. As the principles reflect universally valid norms, they allow intercultural and cross-cultural judgments to be made. 

This approach is based on respect for the four prima facie moral principles  

Beneficence—an obligation to provide benefits and to balance any benefits against the perceived risks. 

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Explained in such general terms as maximizing the good, ntilitarianisni is an intuitively plausible ethical theory. Disagreements occur when defenders attempt to specify the content and meaning of the... 

The following passage describes the ethical theory of utilitarianism. 

If you have ever made a list of pros and cons to help you make a decision, you have used the utilitarian method of moral reasoning. One of the main ethical theories, utilitarianism posits that the key to deciding what makes an act morally right or wrong is its consequences. 

Figure 8.1 The four main categories for ethical theories dealing with questions regarding human-animal and human-nature relationships anthropocentric, sentientistic, biocentric and ecocentric (Leopold 1949, Singer 1981). The idea of an evolution of ethics, however, has been discussed by several philosophers before Leopold and Singer such as Albert Schweizer, Thomas Huxley and Peter Kropotkin as well as by Charles Darwin).

Sandoe, P. 1999. Quality of life three competing views. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 2 11-23. 

Engineers, by contrast, are constantly faced with physical theories that apply at different length and time scales, and they must make sense of them and know when to apply which theory to what situation. Perhaps the situation in philosophy should be viewed similarly. That is, perhaps different forms of philosophical argument should be applied in different circumstances. In particular, perhaps ethical theory should be viewed in dynamic systems terms, and different modes of philosophical thought should be considered in terms of when they came to be applied and how that mode of thought interacted with other beliefs about ethical matters. 

ETHICAL THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES AS A FRAMEWORK FOR DECISION MAKING... 

Rawls, John. 1995. "Two Concepts of Rules." In S. M. Cahn J. G. Haber, eds. Twentieth Century Ethical Theory (pp. 273-290). Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall. 

Whitehouse, D., Duquenoy, P., 2011. e-Health and ethics theory, teaching, and practice (Festschrift in honour of Bradley). In Haftor, D., Mirijamdotter, A. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies, Society and Human Beings Theory and Framework. IGI Global, Hershey, PA. 

Why does it matter that our genetic interventions might change who is bom Because our standard ethical theories make it difficult to argue that you can do something on somebody s behalf if your actions mean that they will not be bom and instead a different person will come into existence. You cannot say that the life of the person who would have been bom with Tay Sachs disease or cystic fibrosis is made better if what you have done is substituted a different person who will not have the disease. And the new person has not been made better off. 

Gordon Graham has provided an excellent introductory work [12]. W. Richard Bowen has provided an introduction to the main ethical theories in an engineering context [13]. 

Beauchamp, T. and Bowie, N. Ethical Theory and Business. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall, 1993. 

As with all other attempts at integrating an ethical foundation into the engineering profession, it is not the particular ethical theory, which provides a correct answer, as ethical dilemmas do not have right and wrong answers. If such answers existed, we would simply not use the term dilemma. 

Rolhn, Bernard E. An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics Theory and Cases. 2d ed. Ames, Iowa Black-well, 2006. Discusses the veterinarian s responsibility to animals, clients, and society using case histories and considers animal welfare awareness. Smith, Gary, and Alan M. Kelly, eds. Food Security in a Global Economy Veterinary Medicine and PubEc Health. Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Reviews the role of veterinarians in public health, assesses the changes ahead, and notes emerging health threats. 

Explain all the possible and required ethical theories to the engineermg students along with their applications to engineermg tasks Discuss contents related to engineering and science subjects only... 

Emphasis is placed only on ethical theories by overlooking the engineering case study analysis... 

Ethical theories are ignored. Hence any discussion of case study will not be adequate for students to comprehend the intricacies involved in engineering practice and the need to include professional ethics in their decision-making process Students may not be able to know how to resolve many ethical problems, as they are not discussed in the class except a few case studies... 

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