Theories of duties and rights center discussion. This chapter will consider ethics as focusing on the specific act and not the consequences. No one can make the decision for you, but before anyone can make it, an understanding of how each works should be reached. Is it what you do that matters, or the consequences? It’s hard to get oriented in ethics without making a preliminary decision between these two. And when the agents ask him whether he’s selling, he’s going to have an ethical reason to lie.Īcross the entire field of traditional ethics, this is a foundational distinction. If there’s a law forcing people to suffer unnecessarily, it should be broken. On the other hand, if the ends justify the means-if your ethical interest focuses on the consequences of an act instead of what you actually do-then the ethics change. He should tell the truth even though that will mean the end of his business. If the means justify the ends-if you should follow the rules no matter the consequences-then when the agents ask Lepp point blank whether he’s selling the medicine, the ethical action is to admit it. So when federal agents came knocking on his door, he had to make a decision. On the other hand, not selling his remedy had a significant downside: it was consigning his clients to debilitating suffering. While his business had been OK’d by California regulators, federal agencies hadn’t approved: on the national level, selling his drug was breaking the law. His herbal product soothed nausea and remedied vomiting, especially as suffered by chemo patients. Until recently, Eddy Lepp ran an organic medicine business in Northern California. justify the ends The goals you want to reach, as distinct from what you need to do to reach them., or do the ends justify the means? Is it better to have a set of rules telling you what you ought to do in any particular situation and then let the chips fall where they may, or should you worry more about how things are going to end up and do whatever’s necessary to reach that goal? In business ethics, do the means What you do in order to reach a goal.
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