Moral Standards

There is no absolute definition of morality

 Why is there a need to be moral?

What is “good”?
What is “ought”?
What are the justifications for
right and wrong?
According to Erich Fromm
• “If men differed in their
basic psychic and mental
structure, how could we
speak of humanity in more
than a physiological and
anatomical sense?”
 According to Erich Fromm

• “How could we understand

the art of entirely different
cultures, their myths, their
drama, their sculpture,
were it not a fact that we
all share the same human
nature?”
According to Erich Fromm

• The unconscious becomes the

repository of who we really are. In
all our potentialities as human
beings, our unconscious ways may
project what we really are inside.
According to Erich Fromm
“Sinner and saint, child and adult,
sane and insane, man as he was
in the past and man as he will be
in the future…the humanistic
experience consists in the feeling
that nothing human is alien to one,
that ‘I am you,’ that one can
understand another human being
because both of us share as our
common possession that same
element of human existence.”
Small Group Discussion
 GROUP 1:

1. Why do you dislike being lied to?

2. Why do you value truth (or accurate
information)?
 GROUP 2:

1. Do you approve of breaking a promise

or contract? Why or why not?
2. Why don’t you like it when someone
steals your property?
 GROUP 3:

1. Do you approve of cheating or fraud?

2. Why is murder wrong?
 GROUP 4:

1. Why is child abuse wrong?

2. Is it permissible to discriminate on the
basis of race or gender?
This is the Story of the
River Blindness Disease
 MERCK AND COMPANY
• He discovered that
Invermectin might kill
the parasites

• Problem: Invermectin is
good only for animals

Dr. William Campbell

Scientist and Researcher of
Merck and Company
 MERCK AND COMPANY
Campbell and his team…
• Petitioned Dr. Roy Vagelos, Chairman and CEO of
Merck, to develop a human version of Invermectin

• However, the odds are great:

1. Research and Testing alone requires $100M

2. It is impossible to distribute to the victims since they live
in remote areas of Africa
3. If the new drugs do have adverse effects, it will taint the
reputation of Merck
If you are Dr. Vagelos, what would you do?

Do you proceed and gamble the name of

the company?
 MERCK AND COMPANY
• In 1980, Dr. Vagelos decided
that the company was
morally obligated to
produce the human version
of Invermectin.
• In 1987, Merck released the
human version and named
it “Mectizan”
 Standard we have
on what is right and
what is wrong.
 Let’s look into this…
• Tracy Latimer, a 12-year-old
victim of cerebral palsy, was killed
by her father in 1993.
• Tracy lived with her family on a
prairie farm in Saskatchewan,
Canada.
• One Sunday morning while his
wife and other children were at
church, Robert Latimer put Tracy
in the cab of his pickup truck and
piped in exhaust fumes until she
died.
 Let’s look into this…

• At the time of her death, Tracy

weighed less than 40 pounds,
and she was described as
“functioning at the mental level
of a three-month-old baby.”
• Mrs. Latimer said that she was
relieved to find Tracy dead
when she arrived home and
added that she “didn’t have the
courage” to do it herself.
 Let’s look into this…
• Mr. Latimer said:
“Tracy’s condition was so catastrophic that she
had no prospects of a “life” in any but a biological
sense. Her existence had been reduced to
pointless suffering, and so killing her was an act
of mercy.”
 The bottom line?

Our choices are so important that the things we value

reflect our moral approaches to life.
• This is the video of Fuerstein
Moral Reasoning
• One of the most puzzling
questions is those that
matters with morality

• The morally right thing is

one which is supported by
reason

• This is necessary in order to

reach our collective goal,
without which, we become
“homo homini lupus”
and
 Consider this…

“I like fruits and veggies for

lunch”
No moral statement is given
It is just a personal preference or a
matter of taste
“What you did is really wrong!”

Why?
What are your reasons?
(narrate…)
(rebuttal…)
• To do morality is to
reason out the
foundations, the core,
why we do such acts
• Rational thinking
consists in giving
reasons, analyzing
arguments, setting out
and justifying principles,
and so on.
 “Good”, “right”,
“wrong” = all of
these are parts of
how to live life
 In a multi-cultural world, reason
is the best tool to settle our
disputes and conflict of interest
 Reason leads us to imbibe a
moral life
 Moral life becomes the condition
for human flourishing
 Moral freedom

• In morality, it is the • The decisions we

very “me” who is at make as individuals
stake affect me and my
immediate society
Moral freedom

Kermit Vandivier’s
Case
Goodrich guaranteed that …

A) its compact brakes would

weigh no more than 106
pounds
B) would contain only 4 small
rotors
C) stop the aircraft at a
certain distance
Vandivier said:
My job paid well, it was pleasant and challenging, and
the future looked reasonably bright. My wife and I had
bought a home…If I refused to take part in the A7D
fraud, I would have either to resign or be fired.
The report would be written by someone anyway, but I
would have the satisfaction of knowing I had had no
part in the matter.
But bills aren’t paid with personal satisfaction, not
house payments with ethical principles. I made my
decision. The next morning I telephoned [my superior]
and told him I was ready to begin the qualification
report
 Dilemma?

• What is the dilemma of

Vandivier?
 Suppose…

• You have a pregnant patient infected with HIV

• You ask: Does your boyfriend know?
• She answered: “Of course not...she might leave
me”

• Do you have the moral obligation to tell her

boyfriend?
 Choose your answer
• Answer A • Answer B • Answer C

• Yes, I will tell • No, I will not • I will just help

her boyfriend tell because I my patient to
since it is his am intruding tell……
right to know into their
it… private affairs
Morality is all about making the right decisions
that could affect life in general….

What kinds of actions What kind of person should

are right or wrong? one be?

What are the moral

virtues? What kinds of things
make a person’s life
What, in general, has moral value? go well?

What does justice require?

Most generally,
how should we live our lives?
 Moral and Non-Moral

Moral standards refer to what

is right or wrong
 Moral and Non-Moral

Non-moral standards:

• Standards of etiquette
• Standards of the legal community
• Standards of language i.e.
grammatical rules
• Athletic standards
Moral and Non-Moral

But what differentiates the two?

1. Moral standards deals with

matters that can seriously
injure or seriously benefits
human beings

• Example: theft, rape, murder,

child abuse, assault, slander,
etc
 Moral and Non-Moral

2. Moral standards are universal since they are

supported by rational consensus.
3. Moral standards takes precedence over other
values.
4. Moral standards are permeate the humanity within
• Read the case of “Baby Theresa”

• Know the facts

• What are the moral issues taken?
• Be able to explain your answer
• Benefits Arguments
If we can benefit someone without harming anyone
else, we ought to do so.
Transplanting the organs would benefit the other
children without harming Baby Theresa.
Therefore, we ought to transplant the organs.
• Never use others as a means towards
an end argument
Using people is negating their individuality
and autonomy
Best interest of the person who cannot
express
If only she could express, what would it be?
• It is wrong to kill a
person argument
Using people is negating
their individuality and
autonomy