Response to Cases

A response is needed to five cases. Please turn in your case at the end of the class after we have discussed it. In this 1 ½ – 2 page analysis, select a case, and then analyze and discuss one or two major ethical issues in it and why you think your resolution is acceptable or not acceptable. The analysis and response reflects your engagement in the particular chapter where you found the ethics case. We will often discuss these cases in groups and then with the entire class.

A useful kind of reasoning process for trying to resolve a practical ethical problem is illustrated by a model for ethical decision-making discussed my instructor. In this model, given a situation that requires the ethical solution to a problem. Students might work through the following seven steps: 1. what are the relevant facts? 2. what are the ethical issues? 3. who are the primary stakeholders? 4. what are the possible alternative actions of the moral agent? 5. what are the ethical issues and implications raised by each alternative? 6. what are the practical constraints on each alternative? 7. all things considered, what action/actions should be taken (would be morally justified by the agent）？

This is neither a linear nor mechanical reasoning process. Deliberation at any one stage may force the student to revisit previous stages. There is no reason to assume that there will be only one acceptable or defensible outcome identified by this process. Ideally, the solution should take into account and attempt to harmonize all the moral and practical considerations identified in the first six steps. Given this process, it is possible that some alternatives will turn out to be morally unjustifiable; some will be quite good, and others will be at least morally acceptable.