{"id":184,"date":"2009-09-22T12:26:54","date_gmt":"2009-09-22T12:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/readers-help-us-define-ethics.html"},"modified":"2009-09-22T12:26:54","modified_gmt":"2009-09-22T12:26:54","slug":"readers-help-us-define-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/readers-help-us-define-ethics.html","title":{"rendered":"Readers: Help Us Define Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethics:<\/b><\/a>
1.    (philosophy) The study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.
2.    Morality.
3.    The standards that govern the conduct of a person, especially a member of a profession.<\/p>\n

Hillary and I were chatting today about ethics. “So what else is new?” you may ask. Isn’t that, um, your job<\/i>? Well, not necessarily. We discuss whatever dilemma the world has chosen to present us with on that particular day – personally or via CNN.  We discuss our individual responsibility in these matters, and we consider what both our hearts and minds are telling us.<\/p>\n

However, when I wrote my post last night on the Savages, a couple who decided to carry a pregnancy to term even though the embryo wasn’t theirs<\/a>, it really struck me how subjective ethical behavior could be. The Savages’ actions seemed completely ethical because their moral standard in this situation aligned with my own, and also because I felt that their actions were innately kind<\/i>. <\/p>\n


\nBut kindness and feelings have very little to do with ethics. Ethical
\nbehavior means vastly different things to different people at different
\ntimes and in different cultures. Take, for example, one response to my
\nquestion, “Whose life would you save?”<\/a> 
\nCharles Cosimano said, “I have an obligation to my wife and myself. I
\nhave absolutely no obligation to the strangers.”  Based on Mr.
\nCosimano’s comment, one could hypothesize (though, please note, I don’t
\nwant to put words in his mouth) he’d find the Savages’ actions
\ncompletely unethical<\/i>, since they made a decision that affects, oh, about 9 months of their life for a child that is not theirs. <\/p>\n

So, back to our discussion today, we wanted to ask you, the reader, to define ethics for us.<\/b>  What does it mean to you personally?<\/b> 
\nIs it a life governed by your gut feelings of right and wrong? Is it a
\nlife based on logic and critical thinking? Does it change with every
\nsituation?  Is it based on religious principles? Societal mores?
\nPhilosophical treatises?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethics:1.    (philosophy) The study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.2.    Morality.3.    The standards that govern the conduct of a person, especially a member of a profession. Hillary and I were chatting today about ethics. “So what else is new?” you may ask. Isn’t that, um, your job? Well, not necessarily. We discuss whatever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,7,14,4,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-and-padmini","category-ethics-morality","category-ethics-theory","category-personal-ethics","category-personal-responsibility"],"yoast_head":"\nReaders: Help Us Define Ethics - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/readers-help-us-define-ethics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Readers: Help Us Define Ethics - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ethics:1.    (philosophy) The study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.2.    Morality.3.    The standards that govern the conduct of a person, especially a member of a profession. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}