Ethical Principles
Another principle is the principle of least harm. It is encountered where in every ethical choice there is none which is beneficial. In such a case, this ethical principle requires one to go for the ethical choice that generates less harm. An example of this occurs in euthanasia and physician assisted suicide where physicians may choose to end a patients life to end more suffering and pain. The other principle is the respect for autonomy which guides the ethical decision making process to arrive at decisions that respect the will of the individual in the situation and allowing their decisions to take free reign (Campbell, 18). This principle requires people to be given control of their lives because they are the only ones who understand themselves.
The other principle is the principle of justice that states that while arriving at ethical decisions, the action should be generally fair and equal to the person involved. These principles may be applied singly or in combination in order to guide the ethical decision making process. They are all aimed at arriving at the best for the parties involved. Of all the principles, the one I find most appropriate to apply in all of my ethical concerns is beneficence. This is because it requires that ethical decisions must aim at arriving at the decision that will generate most benefit. This principle stipulates that ethical theories work towards achieving the highest amount of good over what is bad and what is good is what benefit people more than what is bad.
There are a lot of ethical concerns in the case of Euthanasia and Physician assisted suicide especially when it is applied to terminally ill patients. In the event that a patient in a prolonged vegetative state opts for the method, physicians may choose to terminate the life of the patient in order to end the suffering and pain of the patient if it is legally allowed. This procedure raises a lot of ethical issues due to the value the society attaches on life for it to be ended that way but the principle of beneficence prioritizes the wishes of the patient because they chooses what is best for them and will increase their personal beneficence through ending their suffering and pain (Campbell, 26). Thus, by ending the suffering of the patient, physicians are able to choose what is better for the patient ending the suffering than what is harmful allowing them to continue suffering.
Stem cell research and human cloning are other ethical dilemmas that are facing the society today. The manipulation of humans genetic makeup to construct humans with new genetic make up, and decipher the functioning of genes as well as use of stem cells to generate new tissues that can be used for transplants raises a lot of ethical issues on then risks they pose. Stem cell research provides the potential for creating new transplants to treat diseases that are impossible to treat with other means, example, genetic disorders. The only issues they raise are ethical and psychological concerns over the use and transfer of tissue between humans and across the species. The potential benefits of stem cell research are enormous especially the generation of transplants to treat chronic and genetic disorders therefore more beneficial than the ethical concerns they raise (Strohm, 45). Stem cell research can lead to beneficence to people suffering from genetic disorders by providing a means for development of their cure. In human cloning, the human genetic makeup is deciphered, altered and cloned in order to understand the functioning of genes. Human cloning offers the benefits of understanding how genes work and can provide valuable information about the working of genes for genetic diseases like cancer therefore providing insight into how their cures can be devised. The potential benefits of human cloning and stem cloning outweigh the risks like the creation of superhuman and therefore they can improve peoples beneficence in handling and curing of genetic and other chronic diseases like kidney failure.
Capital punishment is another issue that generates a lot of ethical concerns. Proponents of death penalty have the view that humanity has the moral obligation to safeguard life and in the aim of achieving balance of good over evil and we should search for alternatives to death penalty to accomplish justice. Although capital punishment might be considered cruel and unjust by taking the chance of reforming murderers to society, capital punishment is one of the ways of achieving a good balance of good over evil. It increases societys beneficence by reducing the incidents of violent crime by deterring those who wish to commit violent crimes. Proponents of capital punishment argue that by taking the lives of murderess and people who commit violent crimes, the whole society benefits by protecting the society from the murders who can perform the acts again (Strohm, 61). Another benefit that capital punishment serves is it ensures justice is delivered to the society as a whole. Those who commit violent crimes are served with the same punishment as they inflicted on their victims. Since justice oblige society to ensure it hands the same punishment to criminals that is equal to the one they imposed on their victims, by imposing death to criminals makes capital punishment ensure justice is granted equally to all. Thus, capital punishment brings more benefit to society by deterring murders and other violent crime and helps society to bring back balance of good over bad.
Another issue that raises a lot of ethical issues is the use of internet and computer systems in todays society. The rapid spread and adoption of internet and computer has raised allot of ethical issues relating abuse of privacy, copyright law intellectual property rights security, privacy and confidentiality of data, hate and terrorism sites and the spread of rumors, identity theft and character theft. However, the internet and computer use has offered the society numerous advantages like providing faster access to communication and information faster. The internet has also increased access to information and knowledge and has made improvements in almost every sphere of the human life. The internet is the key to globalization where it supports it by ensuring there is free flow of information between borders. The benefits that the internet offers are enormous and humans have derived beneficence from internet and computer networks than from any other technology (Campbell, 48). However, these benefits can be realized fully if measures are taken to address the ethical issues it raises.
The principle of beneficence guides the ethical decision making process to compare different situations and then make the choice that will have the most benefit to the individual or situation. A major limitation of this principle is that it can be applied in some situations that result in loss of the right of autonomy. For example, in the case of euthanasia physicians may act in their best interests to terminate the life of a patient in order to end his suffering while this might not be in the best wishes of the patient. When this principle is applied in making an ethical decision, it guides the decision into reaching the best decision that guarantees the most common good.
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