Business

Abstract

There are several ground rules that should be considered in the decision-making process, when ethics are concerned. Ethics operate according to a certain set of moral criteria acceptable to society at a given time or in a given place. The paper shows that ethics or morals dictate how we as human beings should conduct our lives. They determine the standards of right or wrong actions in terms of the truly human life. A further aspect of ethics is admitting where society's ethics fall short in terms of concerns that are minimized or ignored. The paper explains that the ultimate consideration in a decision-making process is not primarily one of religious or legal importance, but of social and human importance. The paper uses euthanasia as an example of using ethics in a decision-making process.

From the Paper:

"The most pressing issue appears to be dignity. The argument is that people should have the right to die with dignity, which presumably is not the case if they are, for example, kept alive by machines. There is, however, an opposite point of view stating that death with the aid of a physician is not guaranteed to be dignified. Others approach the issue from a philosophical point of view, saying that meeting death with dignity is the natural result of living life with dignity. This then separates the issue entirely from the way in which a person dies. When all factors are taken into account, the conclusion is that a dignified death requires more than simply a legal right. A dignified death would require a large amount of courage and faith from a number of involved persons."