Introduction to Ethics
Global Bioethics Institute
New York City
June 15, 2015
Why have ethics?
We have laws
We have policy
We have social norms
We have family
With ethics, we can debate law
and policy on moral grounds.
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We can seek to develop a coherent
system of values.
 We can critique current societal practices
by advancing fundamental ethical
principles.
 We can develop a system of norms that
are not covered in laws and regulations
(i.e. environmental ethics)
What is ethics?
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A system of theories, rules, principles and/or
accepted cultural norms adopted in order to
create social harmony.
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To provide all people with a set of core
values and principles for guiding behavior,
for resolving disputes, and for establishing
the foundations for laws and regulations.
ETHICS
MORALITY
LAW AND REGULATIONS
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Ethics vs. Morality
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Morality is used to describe the rules and
norms coming from social, cultural and
professional institutions. Refers to some codes
of conduct put forward by a society or, some
other group, such as a religion
[The Catholic Church considers IVF and
destroying a human embryo immoral.]
[The medical associations consider it immoral
for doctors to make a profit on prescribing a
drug.]
Ethics and Morality: Meaning of Terms
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The terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably - indeed,
they usually can mean the same thing, and in casual conversation
there isn't a problem with switching between one and the other.
However, there is a distinction between them in philosophy which will
be maintained. While the terms “ethics” (how a person should behave)
and “morality” (a personal view of cultural and individual values)
may be separately defined, their meanings commonly overlap and it is
reasonable to acknowledge their similarities and sometimes use them
interchangeably.
Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we would call
moral standards and moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to
the formal study of those standards and conduct. For this reason,
the study of ethics is also often called "moral philosophy."
Morals are culturally and religiously based
distinctions of right/wrong. The sphere of
morality does overlap the sphere of ethics
which makes distinctions between the two
difficult. Both terms denote a knowledge
of right and wrong actions; the foundations
of that knowledge are divergent. Ethics
(beyond cultural relativism) is a foundation
for morality.
The terms “ethics” and
“morality” are often used
interchangeably.

Ethics is the search for universal principles of
right or wrong. It is a philosophical pursuit not
based on a particular institution, nation or
culture.

What are the universal principles of good
behavior; of right and wrong. Or what are the
methods that one ought to use to determine
right or wrong?

For the benefit of society should people be
experimented on without their informed
consent?
Meta-ethics & Normative Ethics
& Applied Ethics
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Metaethics: an attempt to step back from particular
substantive debates within ethics to ask about the views,
assumptions, and commitments that are shared by those
who engage in the debate.
Metaethics is a branch of analytic philosophy that explores
the meaning and nature of ethical terms, judgments, and
arguments. It is not concerned with what the right action is,
but what we mean by “right action” or “good”.
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Metaethics: What does moral language
mean? Do moral facts exist? If so, what
are they like, and are they reducible to
natural facts? How can we know whether
moral judgments are true or false? Is there
a connection between making a moral
judgment and being motivated to abide by
it? Are moral judgments objective or
subjective, relative or absolute? Does it
make sense to talk about moral progress?

Are moral standards culturally relative?
Are there moral facts? If there are moral
facts, what is their origin? How is it that
they set an appropriate standard for our
behavior? How might moral facts be
related to other facts (about psychology,
happiness, human conventions…)? And
how do we learn about the moral facts, if
there are any?
Applied ethics: Is abortion morally right?
How should we treat animals? What
political and economic systems are most
moral? What are the moral responsibilities
of businesses? How should doctors respond
to complex and uncertain situations? When
is lying acceptable? What kinds of sex are
right or wrong? Is euthanasia acceptable.
Business Ethics, Computer Ethics,
Engineering Ethics, Medical ethics; ethics
in science.
Normative Ethics
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Normative ethics is interested in determining the
content of our moral behavior. Normative ethical
theories seek to provide action-guides;
procedures for answering the Practical Question
("What ought I to do?"). The moral theories of
Aristotle, Kant, Mill and Bentham are examples
of normative theories that seek to provide
guidelines for determining a specific course of
moral action.

Normative ethics: What moral principles
should we use in order to decide how to
treat animals, when lying is acceptable,
and so on? Is morality decided by what
produces the greatest good for the greatest
number? Is it decided by a list of
unbreakable rules? Is it decided by a list
of character virtues? Is it decided by a
hypothetical social contract drafted under
ideal circumstances?
Value Assessment
Whenever we address ethical issues we deal
with:
1. Values: how some things are given
importance in comparison to other things:
environmental amenities like clean air, clean
water; how clean?
2. Obligation: once you accept an ethical
obligation what of many of any actions do
you take?
3. Science describes the way the world is
(functions) then ethics deals with the way the
world ought to be—not the physical world. We
cannot dictate what the laws of nature ought to
be. We can only dictate what autonomous agents
ought to do.
4. Truth: we know that truth applies to scientific
claims. Does truth apply to ethical claims?
Is it true to say “Stealing is wrong” “Torture is
unjust” ?
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E. Applied Ethical principles.
“The Principle of Informed Consent.”
“The Principle of Distributive Justice.”
“The precautionary principle.”
 “The principle that plagiarism is unethical.”
 What about “ghost writing” among medical
scientists?
LAW &
REGULATION
ETHICS
Capital
Punishment
Assisted Suicide
Ethical Theories
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Aristotle 350 BC
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Train/educate an individual to be a virtuous
person. Humans have the capacity to acquire
goodness of character; but the capacity has to be
developed by practice—by doing virtuous acts.
Habitual truth telling; eventually the child learns
that truth telling is the right thing to do.
Early moral acts develops a disposition
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Virtue is a disposition (arising from practice and
teaching). Once the disposition is developed, a
person would choose the correct moral act.
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Aristotle believed in an enlightened conscience—he
had no particular theory of right and wrong. He
discussed the virtues of the “mean” avoiding
excess and deficit in the virtues. Vanity is excess;
humility is a deficit; self-respect is the mean;
likewise rashness (excess), cowardice (deficit) and
courage (mean).
Examples of Virtue Ethics
Johnson and Johnson chose a NYC bioethicist to
head a panel to help them decide which petitioners
should be given a scarce unaproved experimental
drug for a life threatening disease.
They chose an elder statesman bioethicist know for
his many public decisions in medical ethics—
someone who has experience in the practice of
ethical reasoning.
Each day physicians make ethical choices for
sick patients. They are presumably trained to
know how to act within the mean of extremes
and to apply some basic principles of autonomy,
beneficence, non-malfeasance, fairness, and
justice. They cannot be guided by specific rules
because the cases are all different. They are
guided by their experience, their education and
an enlightened conscience—virtue ethics.
Ethics of Immanuel Kant: 1724-1804
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Immanuel Kant is a German ethicist—one of the
most cited ethicist of our time. He wrote the
Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals.
Always treat individuals (humans) as ends in
themselves—with intrinsic value—not as a means for
some other end.
Examples of violating Kant’s principle: using a person
in an experiment without his/her consent; torturing a
person to get information.
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According to Kant, there is only one thing that is
good without qualification and that is a “good
will.”
The “good will” has good motives and good
reasons. Those reasons for action are not personal,
i.e. doing something because it makes you feel
good, but because it is right.
You act out of obligation and duty.
One who follows moral law out of duty acts out of
good will, rather than self-interest or intuition.
Universalizing the premise behind an action
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“I am never to act unless I am acting on a maxim
that I can will to become a universal law.”
Good Will Acts out of Duty –Universal Law
Kant calls the premise behind the action a “maxim”
1) Can I conceive of a world where such a maxim
operates?
2) Would I want to live in such a world where such
a maxim operates?
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All persons must be treated as having equal
intrinsic value.
A person must never be turned into a means
for some other person’s end.
Humans have reason (rationality) and
therefore whose existence has intrinsic value.
The person must be permittted to promote
his/her free rational choices.
Utilitarianism
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Utilitarianism—sometimes called consequentialismis the theory that judges the ethics of actions by the
consequences of the action.
Two English proponents: Jeremy Bentham (17481832) “The Principles of Morals & Legislation”
1789; John Stuart Mill (1806-1873);
“Utilitarianism” 1861.
Examine the consequences of one’s action—not the
motive or one’s obligation.
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Two determine the ethically correct choice of
several possibilities, Utilitarianism would have
us evaluate which outcome will yield the
greatest good for the greatest number.
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To determine the morality of an act,
determine the amount of good the act
will produce and subtract the amount
of evil it will also produce.
Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle
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“Actions are right in proportion as they tend to
promote happiness, wrong as they tend to
produce the reverse of happiness. By
happiness is intended pleasure and the absence
of pain; by unhappiness , pain and the
privation of pleasure.”
Mill included mental as well as bodily pleasures.
Problems with applying Utilitarianism
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Suppose you have three choices of actions—A,B and C
A  yields 100 units of good
B yields 150 units of good.
C yields 200 units of good.
C is the ethically correct choice.
But suppose we are not sure of the outcome—only probably
sure.
A yields 100 units of good at probability .7
B yields 150 units of good at probability .5
C yields 200 units of good at probability .4
Expectation Value
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Expectation Value = outcome x probability