Running head: ETHICAL DILEMMA 1

Ethical Dilemma
Name
Institution
ETHICAL DILEMMA 2

Ethical Dilemma
Introduction
Ethics is also the field of moral philosophy comprising of studying the systematization,

defending, and recommending the concept of good and bad behavior. In this regard, many

philosophers in the present days have been dividing ethical theories into three subject area such

as applied ethics, metaethics, and rational ethics. Applied ethics comprises of observing specific

controversies like animal rights, abortion, capital punishment, nuclear war, and environmental

concerns (Dimmock and Fisher 2017). On the other hand, Metaethics involves investigating roots

where the principals of our ethics come from and what they mean to each.

Furthermore, Metaethics answers the ethical questions such as their little social invention

and if they express an individual emotion when focusing on the issues of universal truth, Gods

will, the role of the reason in an ethical decision and the connotation of ethical terms. Ultimately,

normative ethics involves practicality such that it reaches moral standards that regulate good and

lousy behaviorism. Moreover, it comprises articulating the good habits that people should have,

the duty that they should be supposed to track, or the magnitudes of one's behaviors on others.

There, when applying the concepts of meta-ethics and normative ethics, the argument in applied

ethics tries to resolve this matters. The connection between applied ethics, metaethics, and

normative ethics are usually unclear. To illustrate, the question concerning abortion is in applied

ethics as it contains a specific type of questionable behavior. However, it relies on various

ETHICAL DILEMMA 3

normative principals like the freedom of self-rule and the right to life that is usually the test for

shaping the morality of the process. The issue also relies on metaethical matters like the roots of

our rights and the kind of reasons people have (LaFollete 1991). Therefore, this paper is going to

examine the various ethics and how they are being applied in life and their influence on the

world by deeply defining the various ethical theories and subjects.

Applied Ethics

Therefore, the applied ethics have been split into different convenient groups like

environmental, business, medical, and sexual ethics. Usually, in related ethical issues, there is

two necessary feature that is considered. Firstly, the problem must be controversial such that

there are significant groups of individual who proposes and those who oppose the mater at hand.

For instance, grossly immoral acts cannot be considered as an applied ethical issue as there will

be no proposers and those who oppose (Harris et al 2013). However, a problem such as gun

control would be an asked moral issue as there is a group of individual who can oppose or

propose the issue concerning gun control. Secondly, for an argument to be regarded as an applied

ethical issue, it has to be distinctly a moral issue.

In most cases, most media groups broadcast diverse, sensitive issues like gay in some

countries, the spontaneous pledge of the mental diminishing, affirmative action rules, public

versus private health care system, and energy conservatives. All these issues are controversial
ETHICAL DILEMMA 4

issues and have a significant aspect in the community as they are not moral issues while some

are social policy issues. The target of social policy in the city is to assist society to run

competently by devising conventions like traffic rules, zoning codes, and taxation laws(Brown

2017). In comparison, moral issues distress on issues that are of universal obligation practices

like the individual duty to avoid telling false information and is not restricted to different

societies. In most case, issues concerning social policies and morality overlap with topics such as

murder which is socially forbidden and immoral.

Nevertheless, this two groups of matters are regularly distinct. For example, many

people would claim that sexual promiscuity is depraved and would not consider the fact that the

is social rules that can control sexual behavior or the consequences stipulated in the laws that

concern promiscuity. Equally, some social rules prohibit inhabitants in a particular neighborhood

from selling yard. However, if the neighbors are not offended, then it would not be immoral for

an inhabitant to sell their yard in the community. Therefore, for an issue to be regarded as an

applied ethical issue, it has to be morally relevant and has to be more than one common social

policy.

Theoretically, when resolving related ethical issues, they have to be easy for instance the

issue concerning abortion there would be a determination of its morality by consultations from

the normative principals of choosing like act-utilitarianism. Regrettably, there are many diverse
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normative principals that one can select that can result in conflict. Therefore, the standstill in

normative ethics between the conflicting theories prevents us from applying a single conclusive

method when determining the morality of a specific matter at hand. However, the usual solution

in the present years concerning this stalemate is to consult many different representative

normative principals on various issues and identify where the weight of the suggestion deceits.

Metaethics

The other theory of morality is the metaethics which is also known as metaphysics of

morals. Kant the philosopher of ethics defined metaethics by distinguishing between things that

are "good without qualification or absolute right and things that are good but only qualified or

under the specific condition (Barrett 2016). Though numerous things are instituted.in the second

part that states that everything that is good because of its consequences to which those

consequences is the conditions that make them good and even all but one thing that is good for

itself. According to Kant, the good stuff without qualification is what he says is goodwill.

Additionally, he argues that a good will is the only thing that everyone can distinguish as a good

thing without qualification.

Furthermore, Kant points out that if goodwill is unreservedly good, then its value cannot

depend on its having good effect. In this sense, if its amount depends on its sound effects, it

would have cost in its condition it had on that effect. Kant states that the knowledge that the role
ETHICAL DILEMMA 6

of reasons is to make possible goodwill and not to help us satisfy our predisposition or make

ourselves happy may appear righteous nonsense. Therefore, he argues that if the purpose of

nature in giving us explanations were to assist in satisfying our desire or preference or to make

us happy would have made a bigger mistake.

Rational Ethic Theory

The other theory of moral in life is the sensible ethics theory. Rational ethics theory can

be defined as an economic opinion that assumes that individuals always makes a practical and

logical decision that gives them the highest amount of personal utility.( Baudrillard 2016) These

decisions provide people with the most significant benefits or satisfaction given the choices

available and are also in their highest self-interest. In most cases, many conventional theoretical

conventions and philosophies are based on the lucid approach. Rational ethics philosophy

accepts that all individuals try to exploit their advantages in any condition actively and then

steadily strive to increase their profit. The method is based on the impression that all people

dishonor their judgment on lucid intentions, performing with shrewdness when picking, and

targets to escalate any desire or return. The sensible philosophy requires that individual human

actions drive all compound social sensations. Consequently, if an economist wishes to clarify

communal alteration or the effect of social institution, he expects to check the lucid decision of

the person that makes up the entire part of it.

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Nevertheless, most economists do not rely on rational philosophy. In this sense, rebels

have stated that people do not regularly create a rational utility-maximizing decision. For

instance, the section of behavior economy relies on the impression that a person often makes the

decision and explore the reason why they do that. Furthermore, Nobel laureate Herbert Simon

suggested that the philosophy of destined shrewdness that says that individuals are not frequently

capable to get all the data needed to create the favorable judgement (Peters, Guy Peters and

Zittoun 2016). Moreover, Richard Thaler who is an economist had the knowledge of

psychological accounting that displays how individuals act unreasonably by engaging superior

value in some money than other even though the funds have the same amount. Since the rational

philosophy is simple and easy to comprehend, it is regularly opposed by the people across the

globe. For instance, political parties that participated in courtesy of the Brexit which was held on

June 24, 2016, involved in public campaigns which were created on sentiments instead of

rational examination. These movements headed to the semi-shocking and unforeseen outcome of

the vote, after United Kingdom unquestionable left the European Union.

Furthermore, Dalhousie University professor known as Christopher Simms conducted a

research that shows when an individual is anxious, they fail to make rational decisions. The

diverse justificatory application of decision theory in morals can be settled rendering to the asset

of the claim that these debates trying to approve. The tougher the most aspiring justificatory

projects end up becoming effective and complete, the further significance of the protagonist of
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rational decision model in morals should be. The power of judgment of decision-theory

justificatory assertions may be distinct at a minimum of two-dimension, in relations too much

of morality can be vindicated employing judgment theory. The entire initiative of

righteousness, with precise moral standards, moral customs, organizations, virtues, or only

particular parts of it, such as definite morals or working on risk, and how limited the character

of judgement theory is in this explanation. Therefore, positive morals are defensible by

depending on the official principles of judgment philosophy and individuals.' Generally

intelligible partialities whatsoever have further pieces of evidence or foundations that would be

used, such as definite unselfish structures of one’s partialities or nearly universal kind of

ethical perception? The additional of ethics which can be vindicated by verdict theory where

fewer other sources might be stronger is the justificatory protagonist of decision theory.

According to these philosophies about the strength of the justificatory role of judgement,

philosophy and instinctively handling conflicts between the two magnitudes of force, the most

essential decision-theoretic activities to validate ethics can be carried in the succeeding

systematically, starting from the most cogent explanation of standards: Ethics of rational moral

value, cooperation value, Axiomatic justification, risk ethics, definition of moral values,

measuring personal utility, and cooperation ethics.

Ethics Dilemma Surrounding Abortion

ETHICAL DILEMMA 9

Abortion argument compacts with the rights and wrong of purposely terminating a

pregnancy before the usual months of giving birth to a child by ending the life of the fetus in the

process. In this sense, abortion is a very painful topic to every individual who finds themselves

facing the moral dilemma of what decision to make about abortion. In this sense, Abortion is one

of the most polarized ethical issues where most people are not supporting, and others recommend

it while a few are undecided. Hence, the moral argument about abortions accords with two

different questions such as is abortion morally wrong and should abortion be legal or legalized

(Westermarck 2017). However, this two question usually do not end the argument as when we

decide to say that abortion is not ethically wrong that will not mean that it is right to perform the

abortion.

In most cases, we have to ask if having the abortion is the best thing or least the wrong

thing to perform in each time such incident occurs. When we decide to allow, abortion to be

morally wrong, that would not mean that it will always be impermissible to perform an abortion.

The argument about abortion comprises of one side that says an intentional abortion is still

wrong though it might rarely be presented in different occasion. On the other hand, there are

those who support the abortion process and believes that deliberate abortion is suitable in some

situations. People feel principally strong about abortion since there is no way the fetus can give

its opinion to which it the potential victim in the process.

Abortion is supported by the applied ethics theory, as the applied ethics have is divided

into different convenient groups such as environmental, business, medical, and sexual ethics.

Usually, in related ethical issues, there are two necessary feature that is considered. Firstly, the

problem must be controversial such that there are significant groups of individuals who proposes

and those who oppose the matter at hand. In this sense, the pragmatic theory can be implemented
ETHICAL DILEMMA 10

in the abortion process with the doctors consideration the situation stated by the medical care.

Abortion can be performed with much different reason at the hospital by considering various

factors.

In most cases, abortion in hospitals can be performed when the pregnancy is the result of

rape, was planned, the pregnancy might be harmful to the mothers' health maybe it was an

unplanned pregnancy, and perhaps the fetus might be having the congenital disability. For

instance, a friend of mine had this dilemma with her girlfriend since they had unprotected sex.

Deciding whether to terminate the pregnancy or to leave it became problematic as her girlfriend

thought that it was unethical. I, therefore, had to assist him to decide on their unplanned

pregnancy. In this case, the applied ethical theory can be used in this situation as all health care

can perform the abortion knowing that it was the unplanned pregnancy. For this reason, the

abortion had to be conducted under the medical situation to end the stress and the burden of

raising a child before marriage. Therefore, applied ethical theory supports abortion in different

circumstances by considering different reasons and argues about the situation at hand.

Consequently, I was able to give my friend appropriate advice using the applied ethical theory

that allows abortion considering the medical factors that an individual feels that is necessary to

perform it.

However, other theories surround abortion that does not support abortion. In this sense,

the philosophy of morality is the metaethics which is also known as metaphysics of morals.

Kant, a philosopher of ethics, defined metaethics by distinguishing between things that are "good

without qualification or absolute right and things that are good but only qualified or under a

specific condition. Though numerous things are instituted in the second part that states that

everything that is good because of its consequences to which those consequences is the
ETHICAL DILEMMA 11

conditions that make them good and even all but one thing that is good for itself. In this sense

performing an abortion is seen as unethical since it is morally good with conditions and not the

way the theory of metaethics postulates. This theory also supports Christian teaching where there

is no condition that one should have to terminate somebody's life. It is immoral to use terms that

make immorality be good such that when you had an unplanned pregnancy, you end the

pregnancy for the betterment of one life. The theory of metaethics and Christian teaching about

morals have the same support about good and evil acts. Therefore, the metaethics theory supports

good action without the consequences that make them good. In this sense, the abortion can be

useful to someone, but later she will be going through implications that she might live to regret.

In most cases, some of the consequences that the people who perform abortion encounter

many problems both emotionally and physically, For instance, the emotional effects brought by

abortion include loss of self-confidence, isolation, suicidal thoughts and feelings, guilt, regrets,

anger, and shame. On the other hand, the physical consequences brought by abortion include

heavy bleeding, damage to the cervix, organ damage, death, and infection or septicemia.

According to Kant theory of metaethics, the consequences that are brought by abortion do not

support the good morals that the theory suggests. Therefore, performing an abortion is

considered immoral since it does not showcase the extraordinary actions that have no later

consequences. The metaethics theory conflicts with applied theory around the act of abortion as

they both differ from the battle with their different consideration regarding ethics.

The other theory that surrounds abortion is the rational ethical theory. In this sense, The

different philosophy of moral in life is the sensible ethics theory. The rational ethics theory can

be defined as an economic principle that assumes individuals always makes a prudent and logical

decision that gives them the maximum quantity of personal utility (Molyneux 2017). These
ETHICAL DILEMMA 12

decisions provide people with the most significant benefits or satisfaction given the choices

available and are also in their highest self-interest. In most cases, many conventional theoretical

expectations and philosophies are based on a lucid approach. Rational ethics philosophy accepts

that all individuals to try to exploit their advantages in any condition actively and therefore

steadily strive to increase their profit (Hausman, McPherson and Satz,2016).). In this case, the

method of rational ethics surround abortion as this act comprises of personal utility.

Consequently, it supports aborting considering the life of the victim. In this sense, when a

woman becomes pregnant due to rape, she will consider the usefulness of his life and not the

fetus. Thus, she would find the fetus non-useful since she was not planning to have the baby as a

result of rape.

Additionally, when the doctor states that the fetus has detected disease in the fetus using

the technological machines and the condition might be harmful to both the mother and the fetus,

then the theory of rational ethics can be applied by considering the usefulness of the mother and

avoiding the child by abortion. Moreover, in a situation where unplanned pregnancy occurs can

also lead to the application of rational theory. In this sense, a young student might be pregnant

before completing school but can be given an option of performing an abortion due to the

usefulness of education. In most cases, when a student becomes pregnant when she has some

months to graduate, she can keep the pregnancy. However, when the student becomes pregnant

during the first year in college, there would be a reason for her to abort considering the

usefulness of education.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Ethics is also the field of moral philosophy comprising of studying the

systematization, defending, and recommending the concept of good and bad behavior. In this
ETHICAL DILEMMA 13

regard, many philosophers in the present days have been dividing ethical theories into three

subject area such as applied ethics, metaethics, and rational ethics. However, it relies on various

normative principals like the freedom of self-rule and the right to life that is usually the test for

shaping the morality of the process. Therefore, the applied ethics have been split into different

convenient groups like environmental, business, medical, and sexual ethics. Usually, in related

ethical issues, there is two necessary feature that is considered. Firstly, the problem must be

controversial such that there are significant groups of individual who proposes and those who

oppose the mater at hand. Secondly, for an argument to be regarded as an applied ethical issue, it

has to be distinctly a moral issue.

In most cases, most media groups broadcast diverse, sensitive issues like gay in some

countries, the spontaneous pledge of the mental diminishing, affirmative action rules, public

versus private health care system, and energy conservatives

The other theory of morality is the metaethics which is also known as metaphysics of

morals. Kant, a philosopher of ethics, defined metaethics by distinguishing between things that

are "good without qualification or absolute good and things that are good but only qualified or

under a specific condition. Though numerous things are instituted in the second part that states

that everything that is good because of its consequences to which those consequences is the

conditions that make them good and even all but one thing that is good for itself. According to

Kant, the good stuff without qualification is what he says is goodwill. Additionally, he argues

that a good will is the only thing that everyone can distinguish as a good thing without

qualification.
ETHICAL DILEMMA 14

Furthermore, Kant points out that if goodwill is unreservedly good, then its value cannot

depend on its having good effect. In this sense, if its amount depends on its sound effects, it

would have cost it had on those effects. Kant states that the knowledge that the role of reasons is

to make possible goodwill and not to help us satisfy our predisposition or make ourselves happy

may appear righteous nonsense.

The other theory of moral in life is rational ethics model. Rational ethics can be distinct

as an economic attitude that undertakes that individuals continuously makes a judicious and

reasonable decision that gives them the maximum quantity of personal efficacy. These choices

provide people with the most significant benefits or satisfaction given the choices available and

are also in their highest self-interest. In most cases, many conventional theoretical conventions

and philosophies are based on lucid argument. Rational ethics philosophy undertakes that all

individuals try to exploit their advantages in any condition actively and then constantly strive to

increase their profit. The argument is based on the knowledge that all people dishonor their

judgment on conscious intentions, performs with shrewdness when selecting, and targets to

escalate any desire or turnover. The rational theory requires that individual human actions drive

all compound social sensations. Consequently, when an economist wishes to clarify communal

modification or the effect of communal institution, he expects to check the rational decision of

the person that makes up the entire part of it.

Abortion argument compacts with the rights and wrong of purposely terminating a

pregnancy before usual months of giving birth to a child by ending the life of the fetus in the

process. In this sense, abortion is a very painful topic to every individual who finds themselves

facing the moral dilemma of what decision to make about abortion. In this sense, Abortion is one

of the most polarized ethical issues where most people are not supporting, and others argue it
ETHICAL DILEMMA 15

while a few are undecided. Hence, the moral argument about abortions pacts with two different

questions such as is abortion morally wrong and should abortion be legal or legalized. However,

this two question usually do not end the argument as when we decide to say that abortion is not

ethically wrong that will not mean that it is right to perform an abortion.

In most cases, we have to ask if having an abortion is the best thing or least the wrong

thing to perform in each time such incident occurs. Therefore, the decision to allow, abortion to

be morally wrong would not mean that it will always be impermissible to perform an abortion.

The argument about abortion comprises one side that says an intentional abortion is still illegal

though it might rarely be implemented on a different occasion. On the other hand, there are those

who support the abortion process and believes that deliberate abortion is suitable in some

situations. People feel principally strong about abortion since there is no way the fetus can give

its opinion to which it the potential victim in the process. Therefore, the three theories have

surrounded the act of abortion with different philosophical theories to which some contradicts

the other while the other support and one that acts as a balance that supports and doesn’t support.
ETHICAL DILEMMA 16

References

Dimmock, M., & Fisher, A. (2017). Ethics for A-level (p. 262). Cambrifge, England: Open Book

Publishers.

Harris Jr, C. E., Pritchard, M. S., Rabins, M. J., James, R., & Englehardt, E. (2013). Engineering

ethics: Concepts and cases. Boston, United States: Cengage Learning.

Baudrillard, J. (2016). The consumer society: Myths and structures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Barrett, D. H., Ortmann, L. H., Dawson, A., Saenz, C., Reis, A., & Bolan, G. (Eds.).

(2016). Public health ethics: cases spanning the globe. New York, NY: Springer Open.

Peters, B. G., Guy Peters, B., & Zittoun, P. (2016). Contemporary Approaches to Public Policy.

London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Brown, D., Portman, J., & Rosenquest, N. (2017). The California Landlord's Law Book: Rights

& Responsibilities. Nolo.

Westermarck, Edward. (2017). The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas. Library of

Alexandria

Molyneux, Stefan (2017). Universal Preferable Behaviour: A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics.

United States: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

LaFollette, H. (1991). The Truth in Ethical Relativism: Journal of Social Philosophy. Vol(2),

146-154
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Hausman, D., McPherson, M., & Satz, D. (2016). Economic analysis, moral philosophy, and

public policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.