moral issues for essay

180 Ethics Topics & Ethical Questions to Debate

Our code of ethics is derived from what we think is right or wrong. On top of that, we have to agree to the moral standards established by the society we live in. Conventional norms generally label theft, murder, or harassment as bad. However, there are many influences that impact our considerations and understanding of ethics.

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Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies moral issues. This article outlines the three different types of ethics and presents a list of compelling ethics topics for essays and research papers, as well as ethical questions to debate.

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🔝 Top 10 Ethical Topics

🧑🤝🧑Types of Ethics
🤔 Ethical Issues
🖥️ Computer Ethics
🧬 Bioethics
🚓👮 Criminal Justice
⚖️ Ethical Dilemmas

⭐ Top 10 Ethics Topics to Debate

😈 ethical questions to debate, 🔍 references.

Religious beliefs vs. medical care
Issues behind unpaid internships
Toxic environment at the workplace
The dilemma of reporting an accident
Should one’s political leanings be private?
The limits of doctor-patient confidentiality
Is it ethical to pay children for good grades?
Ethics at the workplace and discrimination
Should social media be allowed at the workplace?
Promotion of environmental responsibility in business

🧑🤝🧑 Types of Ethics

Modern philosophy splits ethics into three groups: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.

The core question of metaethics is: “What is morality, and where does it come from?” It is also concerned with the emergence of human values, motivation, and reasoning.
Normative ethics seeks to answer the question, “How should I act?” An example of a normative moral theory is Kant’s Categorical Imperative: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law . In other words: be kind.
Applied ethics seeks to apply moral considerations into real-life controversial subjects. Its contents can vary greatly and touch bioethics as well as criminal justice. It studies specific actions and practices from the point of moral acceptance.

However, ethics does not end with these three types. Over the centuries, philosophers have proposed various ethical theories. Their four general categories are deontological, utilitarian, right, and virtue ethics.

A deontologist is a person with a set of moral duties from which they will not adhere. When faced with an ethical conflict, they will always act according to their self-proclaimed obligations.
For a utilitarian , a decision needs to yield the greatest benefit for the majority.
If rights are the root of an ethical theory, these are the highest priority. A person’s rights can either be established in a society by law or bestowed from one individual upon another.
Judging someone by virtue means considering a person’s character rather than their actions. Here, an individual’s reputation, motivation, and ethics play a crucial role.

Now that you know the basics, you have the perfect ground to start your ethics essay.

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🤔 Ethical Topics for an Essay

Ethical issues are situations in which an individual needs to evaluate which course of action is morally right. Essays on this topic shine a light on difficult questions. Therefore, students need to defend their position convincingly.

Discuss what we should do about climate change .
What are the moral problems surrounding abortion ?
Can we still justify eating meat?
Investigate the use of plastic in the beauty industry.
Is it unethical to be extremely rich?
Should you buy Nestlé products despite the fact that the company privatizes water?
Is the unequal distribution of wealth unethical?
Discuss how workplace ethics should take sexism into account.
What can we do to combat racism ?
Why are LGBT + people discriminated against?
Should euthanasia be legal?
Can war be ethical?
Should schools punish students for attending the Fridays for Future protests?
Would drug use be unethical if it were legal?
Explain the moral problems that come with automating jobs .

Is it ethical to hire someone to do assignments for you?
How far should everyone’s right to privacy go?
Is using animals for scientific testing unethical?
How should governments deal with refugees ?
Discuss the carbon impact of having children.
Can modern societies still be held accountable for what their nation did in the past?
Analyze the benefits and disadvantages of universal income .
How much control should the state have on the press?
Should schools teach religion ?
What are ethical concerns regarding downloading media from the internet?

🖥️ Computer Ethics Essay Topics

The advent of information technology has altered every aspect of our lives. Computer ethics applies traditional moral theories to everything surrounding computers and cyber security. The list below contains enthralling ethical topics concerned with the realm of computing.

How much work should we leave entirely to computers?
Discuss the dangers of storing vulnerable data online.
Are computers secure enough to contain so much information about our lives?
Discuss if hacking can be morally justified.
Examine privacy-related concerns regarding computers .
Should all software be free?
How can you legitimize the possession of a computer algorithm patent?
What can be done to prevent cyberbullying ?
Investigate the moral effects anonymity has on internet users.
Whose laws apply if you wish to protect your rights online?
Discuss how the necessity to own a computer impacts poorer nations and people.
Which ethical problems can people face due to the internet’s possibilities?
When is sabotaging another person’s computer justified?
Analyze the social responsibility that comes with developing new software.
Are computer crimes less harmful than crimes against humans?
Who owns information that is distributed online?
What is more important: easy accessibility or privacy?
Investigate the moral problems associated with AI .
If a computer makes a critical mistake, whose fault is it?
Discuss the importance of netiquette.
How should tech companies deal with ethical problems?
Can AI algorithms ensure ethical behavior?
Why do tech companies need ethics boards?
Which ethical conflicts appear when using drones ?
Investigate racial bias in facial recognition systems.

🏅 Sports Ethics Topics for a Paper

Morality in sports is based on integrity, respect, responsibility, and fairness. Often, this puts athletes into a dilemma: do I want to be ethical, or do I want to win? Answering these questions is not always easy. The following list compiles sports topics for a research paper on ethics.

What are moral complications when using enhancement drugs?
Is gamesmanship unethical?
How important is ethics in sports?
Discuss the moral responsibilities of athletes .
What are ethical reasons to pay college athletes ?
Investigate the ethical implications of kneeling for the national anthem .
Can college sports and the principles of higher education go hand in hand?
Investigate the sexist bias in sports.
Was it selfish when the American female soccer team went to court to demand equal pay?

What moral obligations do universities have towards their athletes?
When can you justify cheating ?
Concerning the environment, how can professional sports events be ethical?
Which ethical issues do healthcare workers have concerning sportspeople?
Which moral duties do teams’ coaches have?
Are the extremely high salaries of sports professionals justified?
In 2003, the Olympics abolished the wild card system. Was that fair?
Because of the Paralympics, disabled athletes cannot take part in the real Olympics. Is that discriminatory?
Discuss how money influences the fairness of a sport.
Debate if and how children are exploited to become elite athletes.
Which moral duties should a good sport follow?
How much should parents get involved in their child’s physical education ?
Investigate if everyday codes of ethics should apply to sports.
Discuss the ethical implications of motorsports.
Who is responsible if a player gets injured?
Are referees always fair?

🧬 Bioethics Topics for an Essay

Bioethics comes into play when we talk about life and health. It expands from genetics to neurology and even plastic surgery. In the name of the common good, researchers often find themselves in conflicting positions. This makes bioethics an especially exciting topic to write about.

Discuss the moral conflicts of genetic engineering .
What are the ethical responsibilities associated with using CRISPR ?
Investigate the problems of stem cell research .
When can humans be used for drug testing ?
Should vaccinations be mandatory for everyone?
Investigate the ethics that apply to a medical worker.
Discuss the harmful effects of plastic surgery .
Should a person who is brain dead be kept alive?
Is it just that medical care is linked to an individual’s ability to pay?
Should everyone be an organ donor by default?
What is more important: a person’s right to privacy or the information of at-risk relatives?
Is prenatal invasive testing ethical?
Should neuroenhancement drugs be legal?
Discuss ethical conflicts concerning Disclosure and Barring Service.
Is it ethical to improve memory functions with brain stimulation ?
Analyze the ethical issues concerning precision medicine.
What are the problems of surrogacy ?
Should medical personnel collect healthy tissues of a deceased person without their consent?

Bioethics is closely connected with the fields of technology, medicine, politics, philosophy, and law,

What should be done with the child of a brain-dead pregnant woman?
How important is a subject’s anonymity during research?
Discuss the ethics of shared decision-making .
How much responsibility do mentally challenged people carry for their actions?
Was Sweden right not to impose strict lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic?
To what extent are businesses responsible for their employees’ health?
Should universal healthcare be free?

🚓👮 Criminal Justice Ethics Topics to Write About

Law enforcers should always act ethically. Unfortunately, it is not always the case. Police officers and attorneys often end up in morally ambiguous situations. In many cases, they don’t do what the public deems the right thing. Below are the examples of criminal justice ethics topics.

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When is it legitimate for a police officer to use violence?
How can an officer remain impartial?
Should law enforcement visibly wear guns in public?
How much force is too much?
Investigate possible ethical implications associated with true crime podcasts.
Should prostitution be legal in the US?
How ethical is interrogation ?
Can torture be justified?
Discuss the ethical consequences of lying when working in criminal justice .
Is working undercover deception?
Debate whether it is an American citizen’s moral duty to participate in jury duty.
Should the police be allowed to access everyone’s data?
Discuss the moral complications of “innocent until proven guilty.”
Should convicted pedophiles be allowed to see their children?
Can teaching ethics at schools prevent crime?
Analyze ethical problems of the Stanford Prison Experiment .
Should NATO have become involved in America’s Afghan war ?
What are the ethical implications of shooter drills at school?
Was Edward Snowden morally in the wrong?
How should we deal with child soldiers ?
Discuss if the prosecution of Julian Assange is justified.
Examine the ethical problems of private prisons .
What moral obligations should someone consider when granting prisoners the right to work?
When is capital punishment justified?
Is it ethical to incarcerate juvenile offenders ?

⚖️ Ethical Dilemma Topics to Write About

An ethical issue becomes a dilemma when different moral standards clash with each other. In this situation, it is impossible to find a path to an ethically permissible solution that is unambiguous. The following sample topics are a solid base to start a discussion on morals.

Should parents watch over what their children do on the internet?
Would you report an accident you caused if there are no witnesses?
What should a doctor do if a patient refuses life-saving treatment for religious reasons?
Should you turn down a client if their political views do not match yours?
Would you promote something you are not convinced of to get money?
Should you lie to land a job that gets you out of poverty?

Your partner cheated on you. Now, you get the chance to take your revenge with someone you really like. Would you do it?
Should students use automated writing tools like free thesis generators , summarizers, and paraphrasers?
Your teacher is continuously mocking your classmate. You are a teacher’s pet. Would you speak up?
Your son likes to wear dresses. One day, he asks if he can wear one to school. Will you let him?
You are very religious. Your daughter wants to get married to another woman and invites you to her wedding. What will you do?
Prenatal testing showed that your unborn child has a disability. Would you terminate pregnancy?
You are in a long-term relationship. Suddenly, your partner gets a job offer in another part of the world. What would you do?
You have a terminal illness . This makes you a financial burden to your relatives. Are you obliged towards them to quit your treatment?
You have a red and a blue candy bar. Blue is your favorite, but you also know that it’s your friend’s favorite. Will you give it to them?
A friend asked you for a loan. Since then, they have not given you anything back. They are still not wholly stable financially. Will you ask them to return the money?
Your grandma passed away and bequeathed her favorite mink coat to you. You are a vegan. What do you do?
A few years ago, you borrowed a gun from a friend. Now, they ask for it back, but their mental state seems to be rapidly deteriorating. This makes you scared they are going to shoot someone, or themselves. What do you do?
You find out that your friend cheats on their spouse. You are close friends with their family. Will you tell on them?
For your birthday, your friend gave you a sweater they’ve made themselves. You think it’s ugly. Do you tell them?
You are a vegan . Should you buy vegan products which are highly problematic to produce?
You are in a restaurant. Your order arrives too late. The waitress looks stressed. Will you make her take it back?
You went to the store and bought a new, expensive item. The clerk gives you too much change. Do you give it back?
You are walking with a friend and find $50 on the floor. Would you share it with them?
Your child firmly believes in Santa Claus. One Christmas , they start suspecting that he is not real. What do you do?
Is having pets ethical?
Can eating meat be justified?
Should we defund the police?
Should atomic bombs be banned?
Can discrimination be justified?
Is it ethical to ask someone’s age?
Should children get paid for chores?
Is it unprofessional to send voice messages?
Should children be allowed to vote?
Should influencers promote products they don’t use?
Should there be any limitations to doctor and patient confidentiality?
Should physician-assisted suicide be allowed?
Can teenagers get plastic surgery?
What to do when you find out that your relative has committed an offense?
What to do when you see your friend cheating on the exam?
Should sportsmen be paid more than teachers?
Should gender quotas be used during parliamentary elections?
Do companies have the right to collect information about their customers?
Can politicians appeal to religious issues during electoral campaigns?
Should fake news be censored in a democratic society?

We hope that in this list you’ve found the ethics topic that fits you the best. Good luck with your assignment!

12 Interesting Ethical Topics for Essay Papers

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Writing a persuasive essay requires identifying interesting ethical topics, and these options might inspire you to create a powerful and engaging essay, position paper , or speech for your next assignment.

Should Teens Have Plastic Surgery?

Good looks are highly prized in society. You can see advertisements everywhere urging you to buy products that will supposedly enhance your appearance. While many products are topical, plastic surgery is probably the ultimate game-changer. Going under the knife to enhance your looks can be a quick fix and help you achieve the look you desire. It also carries risks and can have lifelong consequences. Consider whether you think teens—who are still developing into mature individuals—should have the right to make such a big decision at such a young age, or if their parents should be able to decide for them.

Would You Tell If You Saw a Popular Kid Bullying?

Bullying is a big problem in schools and even in society in general. But it can be difficult to show courage, step up—and step in—if you see a popular kid bullying someone at school. Would you report it if you saw this happening? Why or why not?

Would You Speak Up If Your Friend Abused an Animal?

Animal abuse by youngsters can foreshadow more violent acts as these individuals grow up. Speaking up might save the animal pain and suffering today, and it might steer that person away from more violent acts in the future. But would you have the courage to do so? Why or why not?

Would You Tell If You Saw a Friend Cheating on a Test?

Courage can come in subtle forms, and that can include reporting seeing someone cheat on a test. Cheating on a test might not seem like such a big deal; perhaps you've cheated on a test yourself. But it is against the policies of schools and universities worldwide. If you saw someone cheating, would you speak up and tell the teacher? What if it were your buddy cheating and telling might cost you a friendship? Explain your stance.

Should News Stories Slant Toward What People Want to Hear?

There is much debate over whether the news should be unbiased or allow commentary. Newspapers, radios, and news television stations are businesses, just as much as a grocery store or online retailers. They need customers to survive, and that means appealing to what their customers want to hear or see. Slanting reports toward popular opinions could increase ratings and readership, in turn saving newspapers and news shows, as well as jobs. But is this practice ethical? What do you think?

Would You Tell If Your Best Friend Had a Drink at the Prom?

Most schools have strict rules about drinking at the prom, but many students still engage in the practice. After all, they'll be graduating soon. If you saw a friend imbibing, would you tell or look the other way? Why?

Should Football Coaches Be Paid More Than Professors?

Football often brings in more money than any other single activity or program a school offers, including academic classes. In the corporate world, if a business is profitable, the CEO and those who contributed to the success are often rewarded handsomely. With that in mind, shouldn't it be the same in academia? Should top football coaches get paid more than top professors? Why or why not?

Should Politics and Church Be Separate?

Candidates often invoke religion when they're campaigning. It's generally a good way to attract votes. But should the practice be discouraged? The U.S. Constitution, after all, dictates that there should be a separation of church and state in this country. What do you think and why?

Would You Speak Up If You Heard an Ugly Ethnic Statement at a Party Filled With Popular Kids?

As in the previous examples, it can be hard to speak up, especially when an incident involves popular kids. Would you have the courage to say something and risk the ire of the "in" crowd? Who would you tell?

Should Assisted Suicides Be Allowed for Terminally Ill Patients?

Some countries, like the Netherlands, allow assisted suicides , as do some U.S. states. Should "mercy killing" be legal for terminally ill patients who are suffering from great physical pain? What about patients whose diseases will negatively impact their families? Why or why not?

Should a Student's Ethnicity Be a Consideration for College Acceptance?

There has been a long-standing debate about the role ethnicity should play in college acceptance. Proponents of affirmative action argue that underrepresented groups should be given a leg up. Opponents say that all college candidates should be judged on their merits alone. What do you think and why?

Should Companies Gather Information About Their Customers?

Information privacy is a big and growing issue. Every time you log onto the internet and visit an online retailer, news company, or social media site, companies gather information about you. Should they have the right to do so, or should the practice be banned? Why do you think so? Explain your answer.

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How to Write an Ethics Paper: Guide & Ethical Essay Examples

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An ethics essay is a type of academic writing that explores ethical issues and dilemmas. Students should evaluates them in terms of moral principles and values. The purpose of an ethics essay is to examine the moral implications of a particular issue, and provide a reasoned argument in support of an ethical perspective.

Writing an essay about ethics is a tough task for most students. The process involves creating an outline to guide your arguments about a topic and planning your ideas to convince the reader of your feelings about a difficult issue. If you still need assistance putting together your thoughts in composing a good paper, you have come to the right place. We have provided a series of steps and tips to show how you can achieve success in writing. This guide will tell you how to write an ethics paper using ethical essay examples to understand every step it takes to be proficient. In case you don’t have time for writing, get in touch with our professional essay writers for hire . Our experts work hard to supply students with excellent essays.

What Is an Ethics Essay?

An ethics essay uses moral theories to build arguments on an issue. You describe a controversial problem and examine it to determine how it affects individuals or society. Ethics papers analyze arguments on both sides of a possible dilemma, focusing on right and wrong. The analysis gained can be used to solve real-life cases. Before embarking on writing an ethical essay, keep in mind that most individuals follow moral principles. From a social context perspective, these rules define how a human behaves or acts towards another. Therefore, your theme essay on ethics needs to demonstrate how a person feels about these moral principles. More specifically, your task is to show how significant that issue is and discuss if you value or discredit it.

Purpose of an Essay on Ethics

The primary purpose of an ethics essay is to initiate an argument on a moral issue using reasoning and critical evidence. Instead of providing general information about a problem, you present solid arguments about how you view the moral concern and how it affects you or society. When writing an ethical paper, you demonstrate philosophical competence, using appropriate moral perspectives and principles.

Things to Write an Essay About Ethics On

Before you start to write ethics essays, consider a topic you can easily address. In most cases, an ethical issues essay analyzes right and wrong. This includes discussing ethics and morals and how they contribute to the right behaviors. You can also talk about work ethic, code of conduct, and how employees promote or disregard the need for change. However, you can explore other areas by asking yourself what ethics mean to you. Think about how a recent game you watched with friends started a controversial argument. Or maybe a newspaper that highlighted a story you felt was misunderstood or blown out of proportion. This way, you can come up with an excellent topic that resonates with your personal ethics and beliefs.

Ethics Paper Outline

Sometimes, you will be asked to submit an outline before writing an ethics paper. Creating an outline for an ethics paper is an essential step in creating a good essay. You can use it to arrange your points and supporting evidence before writing. It also helps organize your thoughts, enabling you to fill any gaps in your ideas. The outline for an essay should contain short and numbered sentences to cover the format and outline. Each section is structured to enable you to plan your work and include all sources in writing an ethics paper. An ethics essay outline is as follows:

Background information
Thesis statement
Restate thesis statement
Summarize key points
Final thoughts on the topic

Using this outline will improve clarity and focus throughout your writing process.

Ethical Essay Structure

Ethics essays are similar to other essays based on their format, outline, and structure. An ethical essay should have a well-defined introduction, body, and conclusion section as its structure. When planning your ideas, make sure that the introduction and conclusion are around 20 percent of the paper, leaving the rest to the body. We will take a detailed look at what each part entails and give examples that are going to help you understand them better. Refer to our essay structure examples to find a fitting way of organizing your writing.

Ethics Paper Introduction

An ethics essay introduction gives a synopsis of your main argument. One step on how to write an introduction for an ethics paper is telling about the topic and describing its background information. This paragraph should be brief and straight to the point. It informs readers what your position is on that issue. Start with an essay hook to generate interest from your audience. It can be a question you will address or a misunderstanding that leads up to your main argument. You can also add more perspectives to be discussed; this will inform readers on what to expect in the paper.

Ethics Essay Introduction Example

You can find many ethics essay introduction examples on the internet. In this guide, we have written an excellent extract to demonstrate how it should be structured. As you read, examine how it begins with a hook and then provides background information on an issue.

In this example, the first sentence of the introduction makes a claim or uses a question to hook the reader.

Ethics Essay Thesis Statement

An ethics paper must contain a thesis statement in the first paragraph. Learning how to write a thesis statement for an ethics paper is necessary as readers often look at it to gauge whether the essay is worth their time.

When you deviate away from the thesis, your whole paper loses meaning. In ethics essays, your thesis statement is a roadmap in writing, stressing your position on the problem and giving reasons for taking that stance. It should focus on a specific element of the issue being discussed. When writing a thesis statement, ensure that you can easily make arguments for or against its stance.

Ethical Paper Thesis Example

Look at this example of an ethics paper thesis statement and examine how well it has been written to state a position and provide reasons for doing so:

The above thesis statement example is clear and concise, indicating that this paper will highlight the effects of dishonesty in society. Moreover, it focuses on aspects of personal and professional relationships.

Ethics Essay Body

The body section is the heart of an ethics paper as it presents the author's main points. In an ethical essay, each body paragraph has several elements that should explain your main idea. These include:

A topic sentence that is precise and reiterates your stance on the issue.
Evidence supporting it.
Examples that illustrate your argument.
A thorough analysis showing how the evidence and examples relate to that issue.
A transition sentence that connects one paragraph to another with the help of essay transitions .

When you write an ethics essay, adding relevant examples strengthens your main point and makes it easy for others to understand and comprehend your argument.

Body Paragraph for Ethics Paper Example

A good body paragraph must have a well-defined topic sentence that makes a claim and includes evidence and examples to support it. Look at part of an example of ethics essay body paragraph below and see how its idea has been developed:

Ethics Essay Conclusion

A concluding paragraph shares the summary and overview of the author's main arguments. Many students need clarification on what should be included in the essay conclusion and how best to get a reader's attention. When writing an ethics paper conclusion, consider the following:

Restate the thesis statement to emphasize your position.
Summarize its main points and evidence.
Final thoughts on the issue and any other considerations.

You can also reflect on the topic or acknowledge any possible challenges or questions that have not been answered. A closing statement should present a call to action on the problem based on your position.

Sample Ethics Paper Conclusion

The conclusion paragraph restates the thesis statement and summarizes the arguments presented in that paper. The sample conclusion for an ethical essay example below demonstrates how you should write a concluding statement.

In the above extract, the writer gives final thoughts on the topic, urging readers to adopt honest behavior.

How to Write an Ethics Paper?

As you learn how to write an ethics essay, it is not advised to immediately choose a topic and begin writing. When you follow this method, you will get stuck or fail to present concrete ideas. A good writer understands the importance of planning. As a fact, you should organize your work and ensure it captures key elements that shed more light on your arguments. Hence, following the essay structure and creating an outline to guide your writing process is the best approach. In the following segment, we have highlighted step-by-step techniques on how to write a good ethics paper.

1. Pick a Topic

Before writing ethical papers, brainstorm to find ideal topics that can be easily debated. For starters, make a list, then select a title that presents a moral issue that may be explained and addressed from opposing sides. Make sure you choose one that interests you. Here are a few ideas to help you search for topics:

Review current trends affecting people.
Think about your personal experiences.
Study different moral theories and principles.
Examine classical moral dilemmas.

Once you find a suitable topic and are ready, start to write your ethics essay, conduct preliminary research, and ascertain that there are enough sources to support it.

2. Conduct In-Depth Research

Once you choose a topic for your essay, the next step is gathering sufficient information about it. Conducting in-depth research entails looking through scholarly journals to find credible material. Ensure you note down all sources you found helpful to assist you on how to write your ethics paper. Use the following steps to help you conduct your research:

Clearly state and define a problem you want to discuss.
This will guide your research process.
Develop keywords that match the topic.
Begin searching from a wide perspective. This will allow you to collect more information, then narrow it down by using the identified words above.

3. Develop an Ethics Essay Outline

An outline will ease up your writing process when developing an ethic essay. As you develop a paper on ethics, jot down factual ideas that will build your paragraphs for each section. Include the following steps in your process:

Review the topic and information gathered to write a thesis statement.
Identify the main arguments you want to discuss and include their evidence.
Group them into sections, each presenting a new idea that supports the thesis.
Write an outline.
Review and refine it.

Examples can also be included to support your main arguments. The structure should be sequential, coherent, and with a good flow from beginning to end. When you follow all steps, you can create an engaging and organized outline that will help you write a good essay.

4. Write an Ethics Essay

Once you have selected a topic, conducted research, and outlined your main points, you can begin writing an essay . Ensure you adhere to the ethics paper format you have chosen. Start an ethics paper with an overview of your topic to capture the readers' attention. Build upon your paper by avoiding ambiguous arguments and using the outline to help you write your essay on ethics. Finish the introduction paragraph with a thesis statement that explains your main position. Expand on your thesis statement in all essay paragraphs. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence and provide evidence plus an example to solidify your argument, strengthen the main point, and let readers see the reasoning behind your stance. Finally, conclude the essay by restating your thesis statement and summarizing all key ideas. Your conclusion should engage the reader, posing questions or urging them to reflect on the issue and how it will impact them.

5. Proofread Your Ethics Essay

Proofreading your essay is the last step as you countercheck any grammatical or structural errors in your essay. When writing your ethic paper, typical mistakes you could encounter include the following:

Spelling errors: e.g., there, they’re, their.
Homophone words: such as new vs. knew.
Inconsistencies: like mixing British and American words, e.g., color vs. color.
Formatting issues: e.g., double spacing, different font types.

While proofreading your ethical issue essay, read it aloud to detect lexical errors or ambiguous phrases that distort its meaning. Verify your information and ensure it is relevant and up-to-date. You can ask your fellow student to read the essay and give feedback on its structure and quality.

Ethics Essay Examples

Writing an essay is challenging without the right steps. There are so many ethics paper examples on the internet, however, we have provided a list of free ethics essay examples below that are well-structured and have a solid argument to help you write your paper. Click on them and see how each writing step has been integrated. Ethics essay example 1

Ethics essay example 2

Ethics essay example 3

Ethics essay example 4

College ethics essay example 5

Ethics Essay Writing Tips

When writing papers on ethics, here are several tips to help you complete an excellent essay:

Choose a narrow topic and avoid broad subjects, as it is easy to cover the topic in detail.
Ensure you have background information. A good understanding of a topic can make it easy to apply all necessary moral theories and principles in writing your paper.
State your position clearly. It is important to be sure about your stance as it will allow you to draft your arguments accordingly.
When writing ethics essays, be mindful of your audience. Provide arguments that they can understand.
Integrate solid examples into your essay. Morality can be hard to understand; therefore, using them will help a reader grasp these concepts.

Bottom Line on Writing an Ethics Paper

Creating this essay is a common exercise in academics that allows students to build critical skills. When you begin writing, state your stance on an issue and provide arguments to support your position. This guide gives information on how to write an ethics essay as well as examples of ethics papers. Remember to follow these points in your writing:

Create an outline highlighting your main points.
Write an effective introduction and provide background information on an issue.
Include a thesis statement.
Develop concrete arguments and their counterarguments, and use examples.
Sum up all your key points in your conclusion and restate your thesis statement.

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203 Ethical Dilemma Topics & Moral Issues

If you are searching for the most interesting ethical dilemma essay topics, welcome to our base! An ethical dilemma essay requires you to study difficult choices involving conflicting moral principles, personal values, and societal norms. Our ethical dilemma topics will guide you through medical ethics, business dilemmas, technology ethics, and more.

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Ethical Dilemma and an Ethical Lapse Difference
The Lifeboat Case as an Ethical Dilemma
Lego Company’s Core Values and Ethical Dilemmas
Ethical Dilemma in “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”
Apple Inc.: The Ethical Dilemmas
Ethical Dilemma in Homer’s “The Odyssey”
Ethical Dilemma in the Workplace
Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work Practice The society being the centerpiece of a civilization must have its own regulations and standards that create order and stability, governed by morals and obligations.
The Ethical Dilemmas in Law The paper illuminates some of the ethical dilemmas presented to investigators and prosecutors in addition to debating some relevant ethical actions.
Aristotle, Mills, and Kant on Ethical Dilemmas Aristotle, Mill, and Kant provide their approaches to solving ethical dilemmas. The paper compares the three theories.
Ethical Issues in Healthcare Essay: Ethical Dilemma This paper describes an ethical dilemma in healthcare, its specific characteristics, violated ethical principles, and existent barriers to ethical practice.
Forensic Psychology Analysis: Ethical Dilemmas and Principles Psychologists working in this sphere assess defendants’ ability to stand trial, evaluate credibility of witness testimonies, provide recommendations for the defendants’ treatment.
Personal Ethical Dilemma: Adidas Case Study Business ethics considers ethical and moral principles in the context of the business environment and governs the actions and behavior of individuals in an organization.
Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice Nurses face ethical dilemmas in the course of their duties, for they advocate for patients’ interest in spite of the imposing interests from doctors, relatives, and physicians.
Hurricane Katrina: Government Ethical Dilemmas Hurricane Katrina is a prime example of government failure. That`s why the leadership and decision-making Issues are very important at every level: local, state and federal.
Organizational Ethical Dilemmas, as Portrayed in “Snowden” Edward Snowden is portrayed in the 2016 film Snowden as a victim of multiple ethical issues. The problem of the whistleblower is the ethical difficulty.
Ethical Dilemmas in Psychology Forensic psychologists face numerous ethical dilemmas as they write reports and testimonies related to therapeutic interventions or evaluations in court proceedings.
Parole Office’s Work Environment and Ethical Dilemma The parole officer has professionally entitled the right to disclose certain information as they regard potentially helpful in protecting and restoring the client’s health.
The Trolley Problem Scenarios & Ethical Dilemmas When faced with trolley problem scenarios, one’s decision will be significantly influenced by the ethical theory of utilitarianism.
Ethical Dilemma in Palliative Care Nursing Modern changes necessitate the act of addressing ethical concerns that can match with the foundation of palliative medicine care practices.
An Ethical Dilemma of a Pregnant 16-Year-Old Girl The current ethical dilemma concerns a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl who is hesitant to tell her parents about her condition.
The Discussion and Solution of COVID-19 Ethical Dilemma The ethical issue during the COVID-19 pandemic is related to the duties of physicians and their rights, scarce resources management, and deficit of personal protective equipment.
Ethical Dilemma of Privacy in Technology The paper argues legal and ethical implications of new technology necessitate new ethical guidelines regarding individuals’ privacy developments.
BCBA Interview: Ethical Dilemmas and Cultural Challenges Identifying one’s biases towards other cultures and receiving training about handling a diverse client base may assist an ABA expert in becoming more culturally competent.
The Boeing Firm’s Ethical Dilemma Regarding the Airbus-Neo The Boeing 737-MAX airplane model was revealed nine months after the Airbus-NEO design. After the sales of the new model, two planes crashed in 2018 and 2019.
Ethical Dilemmas, Kant’s Moral Theory, and Virtue Ethics Virtue ethics would not support the decision of breaking the contract on the grounds of loyalty. The concepts of holding to one’s word are at play here.
Bias and Ethical Decision-Making in AI Systems.
Ethical Considerations in Gene Editing Technologies.
Privacy in the Digital Age: Balancing Surveillance and Individual Rights.
Environmental Ethics and Climate Change.
The Ethics of Animal Rights: Balancing Human Interests and Animal Welfare.
The Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Decision-Making: End-of-Life Care and Assisted Suicide.
What Is the Ethical Use of Personal Information Online?
Income Inequality and Social Justice: Addressing Moral Concerns in Wealth Distribution.
The Ethics of Immigration and Border Control: How to Integrate Humanitarian Concerns in National Security?
The Moral Implications of Capital Punishment.
How to Balance Scientific Advancements in Biomedical Research and Human Subjects’ Rights?
Cybersecurity and Ethical Hacking.
How Would Drug Legalization Impact the Society?
The Ethics of Human Cloning – What Are the Moral Dimensions?
Ethical Dilemmas in Artificial Reproductive Technologies.
The Morality of Euthanasia: Considering the Right to Die and Medical Ethics.
The Ethical Implications of Genetic Testing and Privacy Concerns.
Ethical Considerations in the LGBTQ+ Movement.
Ethical Issues in Humanitarian Aid.
Ethical Challenges in Big Data and Data Analytics: User Privacy and Data Security.
The Morality of Cultural Appropriation: Respect for Cultural Traditions and Expression.
The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles: Moral Decision-Making in Self-Driving Cars.
What Are the Ethical Dimensions of Reproductive Rights?
The Ethics of Animal Testing in Cosmetic and Medical Research.
Ethical Concerns in Artificial Womb Technology: The Future of Reproductive Ethics.
Blue Bell Ethical Dilemma Case The Blue Bell ethical case was challenging as the president faced difficult choices since the company was top-selling in the ice cream industry.
Ethical Dilemmas in Business The ethical dilemma is concerned with the issue of teamwork and could be described as ambiguity in managers’ attitudes towards a team of employees.
“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift: Ethical Dilemma “A Modest Proposal” is a film that unveils the poverty situation in Ireland. The movie’s setting was at a time when the population was increasing at a higher rate than the economy.
Helping Others: Examining an Ethical Dilemma If you approach anyone on the street and ask them if helping others is a good thing to do, the answer would most likely be “Yes.”
Ethical Dilemma of Client Privacy Breach The case entails an ethical dilemma related to the appropriateness of a therapist’s breach of privacy and confidentiality when deciding the client’s best interest.
Ethical Dilemma of Reporting Teacher Misconduct A teacher faces an ethical dilemma of whether to report her colleague on her conduct in relation to a student who has a mental disability.
An Ethical Dilemma in Education This paper explores an ethical dilemma with a situation that opening an opportunity to engage in unethical behavior to reap the benefits of passing a midterm exam.
Circumcision Ethical Dilemma and Nurse’s Role in It Circumcision is regarded as a cultural, traditional, or medical indicator. As a rule, the expediency of circumcision causes the most heated discussions.
Solving Ethical Dilemma of Discrimination This paper discusses one of the frequent ethical dilemmas in workplaces, which is discrimination, based on religion, gender, ethnicity, or nationality.
Ethical Dilemma: Euthanasia The present paper compares the Christian worldview to own worldview assumptions of euthanasia.
Case: Evaluation of Ethical Dilemmas in Microsoft During Microsoft’s antitrust trial, Microsoft hired the Association for Competitive Technology to promote the new technology. Microsoft Corporation was the main financier of ACT.
Ethical Dilemma of Worldwide Gender Equality One of the most significant issues in the context of the 21st century, however, is the ethical dilemma of worldwide gender equality.
Ethical Dilemmas as an Integral Part of Business Ethical dilemmas are ubiquitous and knowing how to make favorable decisions is critical in the contemporary business environment.
Ethical Dilemmas in Education Ethical dilemmas in education occur in many cases; one of the most common reasons for their generation is injustice.
Abortion: An Ethical Dilemma There are many reasons as to why abortion poses an ethical dilemma for most women. Reasons such as religious beliefs, medical concerns are easily resolved by reason and need.
A Pig Heart Transplant for a Person: An Ethical Dilemma The David Bennett ethical dilemma resulted in a number of legal repercussions for the different groups of people that were involved in the xenotransplantation.
Ethical Dilemmas in Healthcare Ethics codes exist to ensure ethical decisions are made and properly discussed, but unpredictable situations can arise that require original action methodologies.
Solving Ethical Dilemmas The main principles of responsible behavior with children are reflected in The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct. It sets the ground for solving the essential ethical dilemmas.
Oil Extraction as an Ethical Dilemma Nowadays, oil extraction and exportation has become a significant factor for the wealth of the world community and the economic situation of a particular petroleum-exporting nation.
Ethical Principles as Applied to an Ethical Dilemma (Medication Compliance) The paper discusses the four principles of nursing profession: the principle of beneficence, the principle of nonmaleficence, the principle of justice, and the principle of respect for autonomy.
Ethical Dilemma: Handling a Request for No Further Cancer Treatment Modern technologies can prolong a person’s life and interrupt it, and this is a person’s choice of which decision to make.
Ethical Dilemma of Circumcision: Nurse’s Role This paper discusses what is the role of the nurse in relations to an ethical dilemma involving circumcision, and is this a medical right or a human rights issue.
Build & Imagine Company’s Ethical Dilemmas Apart from the need to maximize their profits, businesses face the need to be ethical. Build & Imagine, a toy-producing company, came across an ethical dilemma regarding their targeting.
Ethical Dilemmas in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” Hamlet is William Shakespeare’s tragedy play that was written in the late 14th century. The imagery in this play is both entertaining and creative.
Ethical Dilemma: Case Study of Harry and Dora The situation presented in the case study between Harry and Dora is a classic scenario between the letter and the spirit of the law.
Medical Gatekeeping and Related Ethical Dilemmas This paper discusses the ethical dilemmas in gatekeeping in managed healthcare systems and the lessons learned when it is included in other domains.
Analysis of the Situations Wherein Ethical Dilemma Is Encountered
The Ethical Dilemma Surrounding the Second World War
Ethical Dilemma Working With HIV Positive Client
Analysis of the Ethical Dilemma of Forensic Psychiatric Expertise
Ethical Dilemma and Medical Technology
The Ethical Dilemma Associated With Vaccinations
Inmates and Organ Transplants: An Ethical Dilemma
Ethical Dilemma With the End of Life Decisions
New Zealand’s Largest Ethical Dilemma
Ethical Dilemma: Treatment and Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Ethical Dilemma Faced by the Managers at the Law Firm
Review of the Ethical Dilemma of Medical Institutions
Money Over Mind: Ethical Dilemma in Schools
Global Warming and Its Ethical Dilemma Assignment
Personal Ethical Dilemma for Diverse Patients
Ethical Dilemma Analysis: Consequentialist, Deontological, and Virtue Ethics Approach
Review the Ethical Dilemma of Medical Errors
Ethical Dilemma for Mental Health Professionals
What Is the Ethical Dilemma of Forensic Psychologists?
Ethical Dilemma Surrounding Nazi Human Experimentation
Euthanasia as a Medical Ethical Dilemma The aim of the work is to analyze the ethical problem of medicine, such as euthanasia, and consider it as an example of a specific situation.
Diversity at the Workplace: Ethical Dilemma Ethical dilemmas at the workplace involving racism must address the essence of diversity and God’s appreciation for the differences inherent amongst all people.
Strategies to Cope with Ethical Dilemmas The navy can help individuals cope with ethical dilemmas they will encounter through cultural and historical training.
Ethical Dilemmas in Software Engineering: Volkswagen Ethical Dilemma The Volkswagen controversy is a portrayal of how engineers have compromised the company, stakeholder satisfaction, and regulatory norms by engaging in unethical behavior.
Ethical Dilemmas in Criminal Justice System It is appropriate to apply different penalties to people because of differences in age and prior offenses in the case at hand.
Ethical Dilemma of Patient’s Disease Awareness The ethical dilemma in the case study may be defined as a conflict between a professional algorithm and an ambiguous request from the patient’s family members.
Sexual Abuse: Researching of Ethical Dilemma The ethical dilemma chosen revolves around the social worker dealing with a situation involving a 21-year-old female client who her father had sexually molested.
Ethical Dilemma and Decision-Making Steps Social workers are often presented with ethical dilemmas in their duties that demand competence in the ethical decision-making processes.
Ethical Dilemma: Autonomy and End-of-Life Care The idea of providing someone with high-quality care involves the concept of respect and acceptance of the patient’s wishes.
Researching of Ethical Dilemma in the Company Policies Moral dilemma is defined as a situation where the person is faced with multiple choices, all of which are undesirable as defined by the person.
Ethical Dilemma Within a Clinical Organization This essay discusses in detail one of the most pressing problems of the current agenda, namely patient confidentiality as an object of health care delivery.
Finding Solutions for Ethical Dilemma The ethical dilemma that Mr. Markham is currently facing is the necessity to choose between the two undesirable options.
Lockdown Ethical Dilemma Lockdown measures are practiced in many regions. Whether lockdown is ethical is a matter of great concern, which has sparked great debate in most countries.
Interpersonal Relations: One Cent Ethical Dilemma In the modern socio political environment, ethical guidelines might change over time. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that ethics training is relatable and based on current issues
Medical Ethical Dilemmas at the End of Life The constitution prohibits anyone from taking his/her life. Society does not also allow people to commit suicide by any means.
Current Ethical Dilemma: HIV and AIDS in Africa The New Hock Times newspaper published on May 14, 2010, was about the rising percentages of people suffering from Aids in South Africa.
Drug Release: Ethical Dilemma in Pharmaceutics A moral issue has emerged as to whether a pharmaceutical company has to release a new drug or not. This drug is thought to be an effective treatment of depression.
Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice: Dealing With HIV & AIDS Patients When one is faced with an ethical dilemma, making decisions between two conflicting options should be done with care.
Ethical Dilemma: Justifying a Right to Die This essay presents a discourse on the ethical dilemma of whether there are circumstances that justify one to have a right to die.
Ethical Dilemmas in Public Health The public health sector must acquaint itself with the ethical principles that govern the public sector as well as the complexities that surround them.
Ethical Dilemma: Should Gene Editing be Performed on Human Embryos? The compelling relevance of a new gene-editing technique, CRISPR has elicited debates on the modification of human genomes to eliminate genes that cause certain disorders.
Ethical Dilemma: Eight Key Questions (8KQ) Ethics is one of the core components of human society as it regulates relations between individuals and protects them from undesired outcomes.
Ethical Dilemmas in Business: Plumpy’nut Controversy The paper is written against this background of business activities and ethical considerations. In this paper, a case study depicting a conventional ethical dilemma is illustrated.
“Leadership Styles of Nurse Managers in Ethical Dilemmas” by Zydziunaite This paper is a critique of the article, “Leadership styles of nurse managers in ethical dilemmas: Reasons and consequences,” whose authors are Zydziunaite and Suominen.
Ethical Dilemma: Consenting to Chemotherapy This paper explores the ethical dilemma of a minor child’s decision to undergo chemotherapy using the example of 17-year-old Kassandra.
Eggs and Salmonella as Ethical Dilemma in Community Eggs and the threat to get sick because of salmonella bacteria should make people think about the outcomes of their decisions and the possibilities to overcome negative results.
A Decision to Report a Coworker’s Unethical Behavior at Work.
Choosing Between Honesty and Protecting a Friend’s Secret.
Deciding Whether to Speak up Against Discrimination or Harassment in the Workplace.
An Ethical Dilemma Related to Academic Integrity and Cheating.
A Conflict Between Personal Values and Professional Responsibilities.
Balancing Family Obligations with Work Commitments.
An Ethical Dilemma Concerning the Treatment of Animals and Animal Rights.
Choosing Between Two Job Opportunities with Different Ethical Implications.
A Decision about Whether to Donate a Substantial Portion of Income to Charity.
A Personal Ethical Dilemma Related to Environmental Conservation and Sustainability.
The Decision to Confront or Ignore a Friend’s Problematic Behavior.
An Ethical Dilemma Involving Privacy and The Use of Social Media.
Deciding Whether to Support a Controversial Political Movement.
A Moral Dilemma Related to Medical Treatment Choices for Oneself or a Loved One.
Choosing Between Personal Happiness and Societal Expectations.
An Ethical Dilemma Concerning Cultural Appropriation and Respecting Other Cultures.
Deciding Whether to Maintain a Friendship with Someone Who Holds Offensive Views.
A Conflict Between Loyalty to Family and Individual Aspirations.
Balancing the Need for Self-Care with Responsibilities to Others.
An Ethical Dilemma Related to the Use of Personal Data by Technology Companies.
Choosing Between the Truth and Protecting Someone from Getting Hurt.
A Decision About Whether to Report a Crime Witnessed but Not Directly Involved in.
A Personal Ethical Dilemma Involving a Financial Decision with Potential Consequences for Others.
Deciding Whether to Intervene in a Situation of Bullying or Harassment.
An Ethical Dilemma Related to the Disclosure of a Mental Health Condition in a Professional Setting.
Choosing Between Personal Beliefs and Religious Expectations.
A Conflict Between Personal Ambition and the Impact on Others.
An Ethical Dilemma Involving the Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports.
Deciding Whether to Confront or Disengage from a Toxic Friendship or Relationship.
A Personal Ethical Dilemma Related to the Treatment of Coworkers in a Leadership Position.
Colorado Alternative Products and the Ethical Dilemma Working capital management is an essential contributor to the company’s growth and profitability, and resolving an ethical dilemma needs a careful assessment of both alternatives.
“Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing” by Rainer The ethical dilemmas that a nurse may face are varied, and understanding the core concepts behind them will help the nurse find solutions to these issues.
Ethical Dilemma in Nursing An Ethical Nursing Practice is a decision-making challenge between two potential normative choices, neither of which is undoubtedly desirable to a nurse.
Death With Dignity: Ethical Dilemma Brittany Maynard had an aggressive form of brain cancer, and to preserve her control over her life, she decided to move to the state that authorized the Death with Dignity Act.
Ethical Dilemma: Regained Custody Through Legal Action The dilemma discussed in the present paper deals with a married couple addicted to drugs in the past and rehabilitated later.
Nazi March Permission: The Ethical Dilemma The decision to deny the Nazis permission was informed by three key arguments. The Nazis do not deserve the permit to march in a particular neighborhood.
Harry Truman’s Ethical Dilemma in Dropping the Second Atom Bomb on Japan The aim of Truman dropping the second bomb on Japan was to show them the need to surrender from fighting because if they did not stop they will face more deaths and suffering.
Sale of Human Organs in the U.S: Ethical and Legal Dilemmas This essay examines the pros and cons of the issue of sale of human organs in the US through the legal, ethical, moral prisms and its interaction with individual freedoms to finally affirm the case for the motion.
Ethical Dilemma: How to Make a Right Decision in Nursing? The ability to make the right decisions is a crucial component of the work of specialists in different conditions, including caring for distinctive categories of the population.
Oncology and Ethical Dilemma Treatment of malignant tumors carried out most often with the use of physically and mentally traumatic means puts different ethical tasks before the doctor.
Circumcision: Ethical Dilemma and Human Rights Circumcision is a complex phenomenon that can result in ethical dilemmas. To put it simply, circumcision consists of surgical operations on female and male genitals.
Ethical Dilemma in Facing Death Situations The purpose of this essay is to answer the question: what is ethical in the situation where numerous people are facing death?
Social Worker’s Ethical Dilemma of Confidentiality The patient’s family face communication difficulties after her brain injury. The social worker has no rights to talk about the patient’s case even to her relatives.
Daily Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice At some points in their careers, nurses may face serious ethical dilemmas in which there is a threat to them of losing their jobs or harming their patients.
Ethical Dilemma Resolving: Dividing Ownership Shares Ethical issues are a common challenge related to entrepreneurial practice. This paper will address one of these problems – dividing ownership shares.
The Ethical Dilemma With the Transplant Utilitarian and deontological approaches are similar in that they are both used for determining what actions of a human being are either right or wrong.
BP Company: Environmental-Based Ethical Dilemma In the last five years, the infamous deepwater horizon oil spill has generated heated debate across the globe on the sustainability of oil mining activities of the BP Company and other competitors.
Euthanasia as a Christian Ethical Dilemma The issue of euthanasia has been quite topical over the past few years. It is viewed as inadmissible from the Christian perspective.
Nursing Challenges: Inexperience and Ethical Dilemmas To be a professional nurse means to face numerous challenges that arise from the nature of the given occupation.
Ethical Dilemmas and Religious Beliefs in Healthcare For a patient, a blood transfusion is prescribed as emergent treatment. His parents do not accept the suggested treatment. So the ethical dilemma appears.
Employee Conflicts Resolution and Ethical Dilemmas Any workplace is an environment in which many people have to interact with each other; as a result, there is a possibility of conflicts between employees.
Medical Intervention: Ethical, Legal, and Moral Dilemmas The main ethical task of a nurse who knows about the patient’s plans to commit suicide is to prevent the realization of the client’s intentions.
Ethical, Legal, and Moral Dilemmas in Nursing The nurse may be faced with challenge of deciding whether to respect the autonomy of patient or report to relevant authorities about the intention of patient to end own life.
Ethical, Legal, Moral Dilemmas of Terminal Illness The moral behavior of nurses has often been described as grounded in commitment to, and receptivity for, the experience of patients, and directed towards alleviating suffering.
Applying Ethical Frameworks: Solution of the Ethical Dilemma and Its Justification This paper attempt to provide a solution to the case study involving a work-based ethical dilemma and the justifications involved in coming up with the proposed solution.
What Are the Sources of the Factors Which Created the Ethical Dilemma?
How Do You Handle an Ethical Dilemma?
What Is the Most Common Ethical Dilemma?
How Do Ethical Dilemmas Arise and How Can They Be Solved?
Why Is an Ethical Dilemma a Challenge in Decision-Making?
What Causes an Ethical Dilemma in Conducting Business?
Why Is It Important to Respond to Ethical Dilemmas?
Is Cloning Animals Ethical Debate?
How Do Ethical Dilemmas Arise in Healthcare?
What Is the Impact of Ethical Dilemma?
How to Handle Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace?
What Are the Characteristics of an Ethical Dilemma?
Are There Approaches to Solving Ethical Dilemmas?
What Are Different Types of Ethical Dilemmas That Could Occur in the Workplace?
Is Time Management an Ethical Dilemma?
What Are the Main Steps for Solving an Ethical Dilemma?
How Are Ethical Debates Structured?
What Is an Environmental Ethical Dilemma?
Are There Ethical Debates of Cloning Today?
What Are Some Key Ethical Dilemmas Facing Healthcare Leaders in Today’s Environment?
How Has the Ethical Debate About Assisted Suicide Changed Over Time?
What Are the Situations in Which an Accountant Might Face a Moral or Ethical Dilemma?
How Does Same-Sex Marriage Ethical Debate Affect Society?
Why Is Ethical Debate Important for Society?
Has Ethical Debate on Face Transplantation Evolved Over Time?

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Moral Dilemmas

Moral dilemmas, at the very least, involve conflicts between moral requirements. Consider the cases given below.

1. Examples

2. the concept of moral dilemmas, 3. problems, 4. dilemmas and consistency, 5. responses to the arguments, 6. moral residue and dilemmas, 7. types of moral dilemmas, 8. multiple moralities, 9. conclusion, cited works, other worthwhile readings, other internet resources, related entries.

In Book I of Plato’s Republic , Cephalus defines ‘justice’ as speaking the truth and paying one’s debts. Socrates quickly refutes this account by suggesting that it would be wrong to repay certain debts—for example, to return a borrowed weapon to a friend who is not in his right mind. Socrates’ point is not that repaying debts is without moral import; rather, he wants to show that it is not always right to repay one’s debts, at least not exactly when the one to whom the debt is owed demands repayment. What we have here is a conflict between two moral norms: repaying one’s debts and protecting others from harm. And in this case, Socrates maintains that protecting others from harm is the norm that takes priority.

Nearly twenty-four centuries later, Jean-Paul Sartre described a moral conflict the resolution of which was, to many, less obvious than the resolution to the Platonic conflict. Sartre (1957) tells of a student whose brother had been killed in the German offensive of 1940. The student wanted to avenge his brother and to fight forces that he regarded as evil. But the student’s mother was living with him, and he was her one consolation in life. The student believed that he had conflicting obligations. Sartre describes him as being torn between two kinds of morality: one of limited scope but certain efficacy, personal devotion to his mother; the other of much wider scope but uncertain efficacy, attempting to contribute to the defeat of an unjust aggressor.

While the examples from Plato and Sartre are the ones most commonly cited, there are many others. Literature abounds with such cases. In Aeschylus’s Agamemnon , the protagonist ought to save his daughter and ought to lead the Greek troops to Troy; he ought to do each but he cannot do both. And Antigone, in Sophocles’s play of the same name, ought to arrange for the burial of her brother, Polyneices, and ought to obey the pronouncements of the city’s ruler, Creon; she can do each of these things, but not both. Areas of applied ethics, such as biomedical ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics, are also replete with such cases.

What is common to the two well-known cases is conflict. In each case, an agent regards herself as having moral reasons to do each of two actions, but doing both actions is not possible. Ethicists have called situations like these moral dilemmas . The crucial features of a moral dilemma are these: the agent is required to do each of two (or more) actions; the agent can do each of the actions; but the agent cannot do both (or all) of the actions. The agent thus seems condemned to moral failure; no matter what she does, she will do something wrong (or fail to do something that she ought to do).

The Platonic case strikes many as too easy to be characterized as a genuine moral dilemma. For the agent’s solution in that case is clear; it is more important to protect people from harm than to return a borrowed weapon. And in any case, the borrowed item can be returned later, when the owner no longer poses a threat to others. Thus in this case we can say that the requirement to protect others from serious harm overrides the requirement to repay one’s debts by returning a borrowed item when its owner so demands. When one of the conflicting requirements overrides the other, we have a conflict but not a genuine moral dilemma. So in addition to the features mentioned above, in order to have a genuine moral dilemma it must also be true that neither of the conflicting requirements is overridden (Sinnott-Armstrong 1988, Chapter 1).

It is less obvious in Sartre’s case that one of the requirements overrides the other. Why this is so, however, may not be so obvious. Some will say that our uncertainty about what to do in this case is simply the result of uncertainty about the consequences. If we were certain that the student could make a difference in defeating the Germans, the obligation to join the military would prevail. But if the student made little difference whatsoever in that cause, then his obligation to tend to his mother’s needs would take precedence, since there he is virtually certain to be helpful. Others, though, will say that these obligations are equally weighty, and that uncertainty about the consequences is not at issue here.

Ethicists as diverse as Kant (1971/1797), Mill (1979/1861), and Ross (1930, 1939) have assumed that an adequate moral theory should not allow for the possibility of genuine moral dilemmas. Only recently—in the last sixty years or so—have philosophers begun to challenge that assumption. And the challenge can take at least two different forms. Some will argue that it is not possible to preclude genuine moral dilemmas. Others will argue that even if it were possible, it is not desirable to do so.

To illustrate some of the debate that occurs regarding whether it is possible for any theory to eliminate genuine moral dilemmas, consider the following. The conflicts in Plato’s case and in Sartre’s case arose because there is more than one moral precept (using ‘precept’ to designate rules and principles), more than one precept sometimes applies to the same situation, and in some of these cases the precepts demand conflicting actions. One obvious solution here would be to arrange the precepts, however many there might be, hierarchically. By this scheme, the highest ordered precept always prevails, the second prevails unless it conflicts with the first, and so on. There are at least two glaring problems with this obvious solution, however. First, it just does not seem credible to hold that moral rules and principles should be hierarchically ordered. While the requirements to keep one’s promises and to prevent harm to others clearly can conflict, it is far from clear that one of these requirements should always prevail over the other. In the Platonic case, the obligation to prevent harm is clearly stronger. But there can easily be cases where the harm that can be prevented is relatively mild and the promise that is to be kept is very important. And most other pairs of precepts are like this. This was a point made by Ross in The Right and the Good (1930, Chapter 2).

The second problem with this easy solution is deeper. Even if it were plausible to arrange moral precepts hierarchically, situations can arise in which the same precept gives rise to conflicting obligations. Perhaps the most widely discussed case of this sort is taken from William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice (1980, 528–529; see Greenspan 1983 and Tessman 2015, 160–163). Sophie and her two children are at a Nazi concentration camp. A guard confronts Sophie and tells her that one of her children will be allowed to live and one will be killed. But it is Sophie who must decide which child will be killed. Sophie can prevent the death of either of her children, but only by condemning the other to be killed. The guard makes the situation even more excruciating by informing Sophie that if she chooses neither, then both will be killed. With this added factor, Sophie has a morally compelling reason to choose one of her children. But for each child, Sophie has an apparently equally strong reason to save him or her. Thus the same moral precept gives rise to conflicting obligations. Some have called such cases symmetrical (Sinnott-Armstrong 1988, Chapter 2).

We shall return to the issue of whether it is possible to preclude genuine moral dilemmas. But what about the desirability of doing so? Why have ethicists thought that their theories should preclude the possibility of dilemmas? At the intuitive level, the existence of moral dilemmas suggests some sort of inconsistency. An agent caught in a genuine dilemma is required to do each of two acts but cannot do both. And since he cannot do both, not doing one is a condition of doing the other. Thus, it seems that the same act is both required and forbidden. But exposing a logical inconsistency takes some work; for initial inspection reveals that the inconsistency intuitively felt is not present. Allowing $OA$ to designate that the agent in question ought to do $A$ (or is morally obligated to do $A$, or is morally required to do $A)$, that $OA$ and $OB$ are both true is not itself inconsistent, even if one adds that it is not possible for the agent to do both $A$ and $B$. And even if the situation is appropriately described as $OA$ and $O\neg A$, that is not a contradiction; the contradictory of $OA$ is $\neg OA$. (See Marcus 1980 and McConnell 1978, 273.)

Similarly rules that generate moral dilemmas are not inconsistent, at least on the usual understanding of that term. Ruth Marcus suggests plausibly that we “define a set of rules as consistent if there is some possible world in which they are all obeyable in all circumstances in that world.” Thus, “rules are consistent if there are possible circumstances in which no conflict will emerge,” and “a set of rules is inconsistent if there are no circumstances, no possible world, in which all the rules are satisfiable” (Marcus 1980, 128 and 129). Kant, Mill, and Ross were likely aware that a dilemma-generating theory need not be inconsistent. Even so, they would be disturbed if their own theories allowed for such predicaments. If this speculation is correct, it suggests that Kant, Mill, Ross, and others thought that there is an important theoretical feature that dilemma-generating theories lack. And this is understandable. It is certainly no comfort to an agent facing a reputed moral dilemma to be told that at least the rules which generate this predicament are consistent because there is a possible world in which they do not conflict. For a good practical example, consider the situation of the criminal defense attorney. She is said to have an obligation to hold in confidence the disclosures made by a client and to be required to conduct herself with candor before the court (where the latter requires that the attorney inform the court when her client commits perjury) (Freedman 1975, Chapter 3). It is clear that in this world these two obligations often conflict. It is equally clear that in some possible world—for example, one in which clients do not commit perjury—that both obligations can be satisfied. Knowing this is of no assistance to defense attorneys who face a conflict between these two requirements in this world.

Ethicists who are concerned that their theories not allow for moral dilemmas have more than consistency in mind. What is troubling is that theories that allow for dilemmas fail to be uniquely action-guiding . A theory is appropriately action-guiding if it assesses an agent’s options as either forbidden, (merely) permissible, or obligatory (or, possibly, supererogatory). If more than one action is right, then the agent’s obligation is to do any one of the right acts. A theory can fail to be uniquely action-guiding in either of two ways: by recommending incompatible actions in a situation or by not recommending any action at all. Theories that generate genuine moral dilemmas fail to be uniquely action-guiding in the former way. Theories that have no way, even in principle, of determining what an agent should do in a particular situation have what Thomas E. Hill, Jr. calls “gaps” (Hill 1996, 179–183); they fail to be action-guiding in the latter way. Since one of the main points of moral theories is to provide agents with guidance, that suggests that it is desirable for theories to eliminate dilemmas and gaps, at least if doing so is possible.

But failing to be uniquely action-guiding is not the only reason that the existence of moral dilemmas is thought to be troublesome. Just as important, the existence of dilemmas does lead to inconsistencies if certain other widely held theses are true. Here we shall consider two different arguments, each of which shows that one cannot consistently acknowledge the reality of moral dilemmas while holding selected (and seemingly plausible) principles.

The first argument shows that two standard principles of deontic logic are, when conjoined, incompatible with the existence of moral dilemmas. The first of these is the principle of deontic consistency

Intuitively this principle just says that the same action cannot be both obligatory and forbidden. Note that as initially described, the existence of dilemmas does not conflict with PC. For as described, dilemmas involve a situation in which an agent ought to do $A$, ought to do $B$, but cannot do both $A$ and $B$. But if we add a principle of deontic logic , then we obtain a conflict with PC:

Intuitively, PD just says that if doing $A$ brings about $B$, and if $A$ is obligatory (morally required), then $B$ is obligatory (morally required). The first argument that generates inconsistency can now be stated. Premises (1), (2), and (3) represent the claim that moral dilemmas exist.

Line (10) directly conflicts with PC. And from PC and (1), we can conclude:

And, of course, (9) and (11) are contradictory. So if we assume PC and PD, then the existence of dilemmas generates an inconsistency of the old-fashioned logical sort. (Note: In standard deontic logic, the ‘$\Box$’ in PD typically designates logical necessity. Here I take it to indicate physical necessity so that the appropriate connection with premise (3) can be made. And I take it that logical necessity is stronger than physical necessity.)

Two other principles accepted in most systems of deontic logic entail PC. So if PD holds, then one of these additional two principles must be jettisoned too. The first says that if an action is obligatory, it is also permissible. The second says that an action is permissible if and only if it is not forbidden. These principles may be stated as:

Principles OP and D are basic; they seem to be conceptual truths (Brink 1994, section IV). From these two principles, one can deduce PC, which gives it additional support.

The second argument that generates inconsistency, like the first, has as its first three premises a symbolic representation of a moral dilemma.

And like the first, this second argument shows that the existence of dilemmas leads to a contradiction if we assume two other commonly accepted principles. The first of these principles is that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’. Intuitively this says that if an agent is morally required to do an action, it must be within the agent’s power to do it. This principle seems necessary if moral judgments are to be uniquely action-guiding. We may represent this as

The other principle, endorsed by most systems of deontic logic, says that if an agent is required to do each of two actions, she is required to do both. We may represent this as

The argument then proceeds:

So if one assumes that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ and if one assumes the principle represented in (5)—dubbed by some the agglomeration principle (Williams 1965)—then again a contradiction can be derived.

Now obviously the inconsistency in the first argument can be avoided if one denies either PC or PD. And the inconsistency in the second argument can be averted if one gives up either the principle that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ or the agglomeration principle. There is, of course, another way to avoid these inconsistencies: deny the possibility of genuine moral dilemmas. It is fair to say that much of the debate concerning moral dilemmas in the last sixty years has been about how to avoid the inconsistencies generated by the two arguments above.

Opponents of moral dilemmas have generally held that the crucial principles in the two arguments above are conceptually true, and therefore we must deny the possibility of genuine dilemmas. (See, for example, Conee 1982 and Zimmerman 1996.) Most of the debate, from all sides, has focused on the second argument. There is an oddity about this, however. When one examines the pertinent principles in each argument which, in combination with dilemmas, generates an inconsistency, there is little doubt that those in the first argument have a greater claim to being conceptually true than those in the second. (One who recognizes the salience of the first argument is Brink 1994, section V.) Perhaps the focus on the second argument is due to the impact of Bernard Williams’s influential essay (Williams 1965). But notice that the first argument shows that if there are genuine dilemmas, then either PC or PD must be relinquished. Even most supporters of dilemmas acknowledge that PC is quite basic. E.J. Lemmon, for example, notes that if PC does not hold in a system of deontic logic, then all that remains are truisms and paradoxes (Lemmon 1965, p. 51). And giving up PC also requires denying either OP or D, each of which also seems basic. There has been much debate about PD—in particular, questions generated by the Good Samaritan paradox—but still it seems basic. So those who want to argue against dilemmas purely on conceptual grounds are better off focusing on the first of the two arguments above.

Some opponents of dilemmas also hold that the pertinent principles in the second argument—the principle that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ and the agglomeration principle—are conceptually true. But foes of dilemmas need not say this. Even if they believe that a conceptual argument against dilemmas can be made by appealing to PC and PD, they have several options regarding the second argument. They may defend ‘ought’ implies ‘can’, but hold that it is a substantive normative principle, not a conceptual truth. Or they may even deny the truth of ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ or the agglomeration principle, though not because of moral dilemmas, of course.

Defenders of dilemmas need not deny all of the pertinent principles. If one thinks that each of the principles at least has some initial plausibility, then one will be inclined to retain as many as possible. Among the earlier contributors to this debate, some took the existence of dilemmas as a counterexample to ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ (for example, Lemmon 1962 and Trigg 1971); others, as a refutation of the agglomeration principle (for example, Williams 1965 and van Fraassen 1973). A common response to the first argument is to deny PD. A more complicated response is to grant that the crucial deontic principles hold, but only in ideal worlds. In the real world, they have heuristic value, bidding agents in conflict cases to look for permissible options, though none may exist (Holbo 2002, especially sections 15–17).

Friends and foes of dilemmas have a burden to bear in responding to the two arguments above. For there is at least a prima facie plausibility to the claim that there are moral dilemmas and to the claim that the relevant principles in the two arguments are true. Thus each side must at least give reasons for denying the pertinent claims in question. Opponents of dilemmas must say something in response to the positive arguments that are given for the reality of such conflicts. One reason in support of dilemmas, as noted above, is simply pointing to examples. The case of Sartre’s student and that from Sophie’s Choice are good ones; and clearly these can be multiplied indefinitely. It will tempting for supporters of dilemmas to say to opponents, “If this is not a real dilemma, then tell me what the agent ought to do and why ?” It is obvious, however, that attempting to answer such questions is fruitless, and for at least two reasons. First, any answer given to the question is likely to be controversial, certainly not always convincing. And second, this is a game that will never end; example after example can be produced. The more appropriate response on the part of foes of dilemmas is to deny that they need to answer the question. Examples as such cannot establish the reality of dilemmas. Surely most will acknowledge that there are situations in which an agent does not know what he ought to do. This may be because of factual uncertainty, uncertainty about the consequences, uncertainty about what principles apply, or a host of other things. So for any given case, the mere fact that one does not know which of two (or more) conflicting obligations prevails does not show that none does.

Another reason in support of dilemmas to which opponents must respond is the point about symmetry. As the cases from Plato and Sartre show, moral rules can conflict. But opponents of dilemmas can argue that in such cases one rule overrides the other. Most will grant this in the Platonic case, and opponents of dilemmas will try to extend this point to all cases. But the hardest case for opponents is the symmetrical one, where the same precept generates the conflicting requirements. The case from Sophie’s Choice is of this sort. It makes no sense to say that a rule or principle overrides itself. So what do opponents of dilemmas say here? They are apt to argue that the pertinent, all-things-considered requirement in such a case is disjunctive: Sophie should act to save one or the other of her children, since that is the best that she can do (for example, Zimmerman 1996, Chapter 7). Such a move need not be ad hoc , since in many cases it is quite natural. If an agent can afford to make a meaningful contribution to only one charity, the fact that there are several worthwhile candidates does not prompt many to say that the agent will fail morally no matter what he does. Nearly all of us think that he should give to one or the other of the worthy candidates. Similarly, if two people are drowning and an agent is situated so that she can save either of the two but only one, few say that she is doing wrong no matter which person she saves. Positing a disjunctive requirement in these cases seems perfectly natural, and so such a move is available to opponents of dilemmas as a response to symmetrical cases.

Supporters of dilemmas have a burden to bear too. They need to cast doubt on the adequacy of the pertinent principles in the two arguments that generate inconsistencies. And most importantly, they need to provide independent reasons for doubting whichever of the principles they reject. If they have no reason other than cases of putative dilemmas for denying the principles in question, then we have a mere standoff. Of the principles in question, the most commonly questioned on independent grounds are the principle that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ and PD. Among supporters of dilemmas, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Sinnott-Armstrong 1988, Chapters 4 and 5) has gone to the greatest lengths to provide independent reasons for questioning some of the relevant principles.

One well-known argument for the reality of moral dilemmas has not been discussed yet. This argument might be called “phenomenological.” It appeals to the emotions that agents facing conflicts experience and our assessment of those emotions.

Return to the case of Sartre’s student. Suppose that he joins the Free French forces. It is likely that he will experience remorse or guilt for having abandoned his mother. And not only will he experience these emotions, this moral residue, but it is appropriate that he does. Yet, had he stayed with his mother and not joined the Free French forces, he also would have appropriately experienced remorse or guilt. But either remorse or guilt is appropriate only if the agent properly believes that he has done something wrong (or failed to do something that he was all-things-considered required to do). Since no matter what the agent does he will appropriately experience remorse or guilt, then no matter what he does he will have done something wrong. Thus, the agent faces a genuine moral dilemma. (The best known proponents of arguments for dilemmas that appeal to moral residue are Williams 1965 and Marcus 1980; for a more recent contribution, see Tessman 2015, especially Chapter 2.)

Many cases of moral conflict are similar to Sartre’s example with regard to the agent’s reaction after acting. Certainly the case from Sophie’s Choice fits here. No matter which of her children Sophie saves, she will experience enormous guilt for the consequences of that choice. Indeed, if Sophie did not experience such guilt, we would think that there was something morally wrong with her. In these cases, proponents of the argument (for dilemmas) from moral residue must claim that four things are true: (1) when the agents acts, she experiences remorse or guilt; (2) that she experiences these emotions is appropriate and called for; (3) had the agent acted on the other of the conflicting requirements, she would also have experienced remorse or guilt; and (4) in the latter case these emotions would have been equally appropriate and called for (McConnell 1996, pp. 37–38). In these situations, then, remorse or guilt will be appropriate no matter what the agent does and these emotions are appropriate only when the agent has done something wrong. Therefore, these situations are genuinely dilemmatic and moral failure is inevitable for agents who face them.

There is much to say about the moral emotions and situations of moral conflict; the positions are varied and intricate. Without pretending to resolve all of the issues here, it will be pointed out that opponents of dilemmas have raised two different objections to the argument from moral residue. The first objection, in effect, suggests that the argument is question-begging (McConnell 1978 and Conee 1982); the second objection challenges the assumption that remorse and guilt are appropriate only when the agent has done wrong.

To explain the first objection, note that it is uncontroversial that some bad feeling or other is called for when an agent is in a situation like that of Sartre’s student or Sophie. But the negative moral emotions are not limited to remorse and guilt. Among these other emotions, consider regret. An agent can appropriately experience regret even when she does not believe that she has done something wrong. Consider a compelling example provided by Edmund Santurri (1987, 46). Under battlefield conditions, an army medic must perform a life-saving amputation of a soldier’s leg with insufficient anesthetic. She will surely feel intense regret because of the pain she has inflicted, but justifiably she will not feel that she has done wrong. Regret can even be appropriate when a person has no causal connection at all with the bad state of affairs. It is appropriate for me to regret the damage that a recent fire has caused to my neighbor’s house, the pain that severe birth defects cause in infants, and the suffering that a starving animal experiences in the wilderness. Not only is it appropriate that I experience regret in these cases, but I would probably be regarded as morally lacking if I did not. (For accounts of moral remainders as they relate specifically to Kantianism and virtue ethics, see, respectively, Hill 1996, 183–187 and Hursthouse 1999, 44–48 and 68–77.)

With remorse or guilt, at least two components are present: the experiential component, namely, the negative feeling that the agent has; and the cognitive component, namely, the belief that the agent has done something wrong and takes responsibility for it. Although this same cognitive component is not part of regret, the negative feeling is. And the experiential component alone cannot serve as a gauge to distinguish regret from remorse, for regret can range from mild to intense, and so can remorse. In part, what distinguishes the two is the cognitive component. But now when we examine the case of an alleged dilemma, such as that of Sartre’s student, it is question-begging to assert that it is appropriate for him to experience remorse no matter what he does. No doubt, it is appropriate for him to experience some negative feeling. To say, however, that it is remorse that is called for is to assume that the agent appropriately believes that he has done something wrong. Since regret is warranted even in the absence of such a belief, to assume that remorse is appropriate is to assume , not argue, that the agent’s situation is genuinely dilemmatic. Opponents of dilemmas can say that one of the requirements overrides the other, or that the agent faces a disjunctive requirement, and that regret is appropriate because even when he does what he ought to do, some bad will ensue. Either side, then, can account for the appropriateness of some negative moral emotion. To get more specific, however, requires more than is warranted by the present argument. This appeal to moral residue, then, does not by itself establish the reality of moral dilemmas.

Matters are even more complicated, though, as the second objection to the argument from moral residue shows. The residues contemplated by proponents of the argument are diverse, ranging from guilt or remorse to a belief that the agent ought to apologize or compensate persons who were negatively impacted by the fact that he did not satisfy one of the conflicting obligations. The argument assumes that experiencing remorse or guilt or believing that one ought to apologize or compensate another are appropriate responses only if the agent believes that he has done something wrong. But this assumption is debatable, for multiple reasons.

First, even when one obligation clearly overrides another in a conflict case, it is often appropriate to apologize to or to explain oneself to any disadvantaged parties. Ross provides such a case (1930, 28): one who breaks a relatively trivial promise in order to assist someone in need should in some way make it up to the promisee. Even though the agent did no wrong, the additional actions promote important moral values (McConnell 1996, 42–44).

Second, as Simon Blackburn argues, compensation or its like may be called for even when there was no moral conflict at all (Blackburn 1996, 135–136). If a coach rightly selected Agnes for the team rather than Belinda, she still is likely to talk to Belinda, encourage her efforts, and offer tips for improving. This kind of “making up” is just basic decency.

Third, the consequences of what one has done may be so horrible as to make guilt inevitable. Consider the case of a middle-aged man, Bill, and a seven-year-old boy, Johnny. It is set in a midwestern village on a snowy December day. Johnny and several of his friends are riding their sleds down a narrow, seldom used street, one that intersects with a busier, although still not heavily traveled, street. Johnny, in his enthusiasm for sledding, is not being very careful. During his final ride he skidded under an automobile passing through the intersection and was killed instantly. The car was driven by Bill. Bill was driving safely, had the right of way, and was not exceeding the speed limit. Moreover, given the physical arrangement, it would have been impossible for Bill to have seen Johnny coming. Bill was not at fault, legally or morally, for Johnny’s death. Yet Bill experienced what can best be described as remorse or guilt about his role in this horrible event (McConnell 1996, 39).

At one level, Bill’s feelings of remorse or guilt are not warranted. Bill did nothing wrong. Certainly Bill does not deserve to feel guilt (Dahl 1996, 95–96). A friend might even recommend that Bill seek therapy. But this is not all there is to say. Most of us understand Bill’s response. From Bill’s point of view, the response is not inappropriate, not irrational, not uncalled-for. To see this, imagine that Bill had had a very different response. Suppose that Bill had said, “I regret Johnny’s death. It is a terrible thing. But it certainly was not my fault. I have nothing to feel guilty about and I don’t owe his parents any apologies.” Even if Bill is correct intellectually, it is hard to imagine someone being able to achieve this sort of objectivity about his own behavior. When human beings have caused great harm, it is natural for them to wonder if they are at fault, even if to outsiders it is obvious that they bear no moral responsibility for the damage. Human beings are not so finely tuned emotionally that when they have been causally responsible for harm, they can easily turn guilt on or off depending on their degree of moral responsibility. (See Zimmerman 1988, 134–135.)

Work in moral psychology can help to explain why self-directed moral emotions like guilt or remorse are natural when an agent has acted contrary to a moral norm, whether justifiably or not. Many moral psychologists describe dual processes in humans for arriving at moral judgments (see, for example, Greene 2013, especially Chapters 4–5, and Haidt 2012, especially Chapter 2). Moral emotions are automatic, the brain’s immediate response to a situation. Reason is more like the brain’s manual mode, employed when automatic settings are insufficient, such as when norms conflict. Moral emotions are likely the product of evolution, reinforcing conduct that promotes social harmony and disapproving actions that thwart that end. If this is correct, then negative moral emotions are apt to be experienced, to some extent, any time an agent’s actions are contrary to what is normally a moral requirement.

So both supporters and opponents of moral dilemmas can give an account of why agents who face moral conflicts appropriately experience negative moral emotions. But there is a complex array of issues concerning the relationship between ethical conflicts and moral emotions, and only book-length discussions can do them justice. (See Greenspan 1995 and Tessman 2015.)

In the literature on moral dilemmas, it is common to draw distinctions among various types of dilemmas. Only some of these distinctions will be mentioned here. It is worth noting that both supporters and opponents of dilemmas tend to draw some, if not all, of these distinctions. And in most cases the motivation for doing so is clear. Supporters of dilemmas may draw a distinction between dilemmas of type $V$ and $W$. The upshot is typically a message to opponents of dilemmas: “You think that all moral conflicts are resolvable. And that is understandable, because conflicts of type $V$ are resolvable. But conflicts of type $W$ are not resolvable. Thus, contrary to your view, there are some genuine moral dilemmas.” By the same token, opponents of dilemmas may draw a distinction between dilemmas of type $X$ and $Y$. And their message to supporters of dilemmas is this: “You think that there are genuine moral dilemmas, and given certain facts, it is understandable why this appears to be the case. But if you draw a distinction between conflicts of types $X$ and $Y$, you can see that appearances can be explained by the existence of type $X$ alone, and type $X$ conflicts are not genuine dilemmas.” With this in mind, let us note a few of the distinctions.

One distinction is between epistemic conflicts and ontological conflicts. (For different terminology, see Blackburn 1996, 127–128.) The former involve conflicts between two (or more) moral requirements and the agent does not know which of the conflicting requirements takes precedence in her situation. Everyone concedes that there can be situations where one requirement does take priority over the other with which it conflicts, though at the time action is called for it is difficult for the agent to tell which requirement prevails. The latter are conflicts between two (or more) moral requirements, and neither is overridden. This is not simply because the agent does not know which requirement is stronger; neither is. Genuine moral dilemmas, if there are any, are ontological. Both opponents and supporters of dilemmas acknowledge that there are epistemic conflicts.

There can be genuine moral dilemmas only if neither of the conflicting requirements is overridden. Ross (1930, Chapter 2) held that all moral precepts can be overridden in particular circumstances. This provides an inviting framework for opponents of dilemmas to adopt. But if some moral requirements cannot be overridden—if they hold absolutely—then it will be easier for supporters of dilemmas to make their case. Lisa Tessman has distinguished between negotiable and non-negotiable moral requirements (Tessman 2015, especially Chapters 1 and 3). The former, if not satisfied, can be adequately compensated or counterbalanced by some other good. Non-negotiable moral requirements, however, if violated produce a cost that no one should have to bear; such a violation cannot be counterbalanced by any benefits. If non-negotiable moral requirements can conflict—and Tessman argues that they can—then those situations will be genuine dilemmas and agents facing them will inevitably fail morally. It might seem that if there is more than one moral precept that holds absolutely, then moral dilemmas must be possible. Alan Donagan, however, argues against this. He maintains that moral rules hold absolutely, and apparent exceptions are accounted for because tacit conditions are built in to each moral rule (Donagan 1977, Chapters 3 and 6, especially 92–93). So even if some moral requirements cannot be overridden, the existence of dilemmas may still be an open question.

Another distinction is between self-imposed moral dilemmas and dilemmas imposed on an agent by the world , as it were. Conflicts of the former sort arise because of the agent’s own wrongdoing (Aquinas; Donagan 1977, 1984; and McConnell 1978). If an agent made two promises that he knew conflicted, then through his own actions he created a situation in which it is not possible for him to discharge both of his requirements. Dilemmas imposed on the agent by the world (or other agents), by contrast, do not arise because of the agent’s wrongdoing. The case of Sartre’s student is an example, as is the case from Sophie’s Choice . For supporters of dilemmas, this distinction is not all that important. But among opponents of dilemmas, there is a disagreement about whether the distinction is important. Some of these opponents hold that self-imposed dilemmas are possible, but that their existence does not point to any deep flaws in moral theory (Donagan 1977, Chapter 5). Moral theory tells agents how they ought to behave; but if agents violate moral norms, of course things can go askew. Other opponents deny that even self-imposed dilemmas are possible. They argue that an adequate moral theory should tell agents what they ought to do in their current circumstances, regardless of how those circumstances arose. As Hill puts it, “[M]orality acknowledges that human beings are imperfect and often guilty, but it calls upon each at every new moment of moral deliberation to decide conscientiously and to act rightly from that point on” (Hill 1996, 176). Given the prevalence of wrongdoing, if a moral theory did not issue uniquely action-guiding “contrary-to-duty imperatives,” its practical import would be limited.

Yet another distinction is between obligation dilemmas and prohibition dilemmas . The former are situations in which more than one feasible action is obligatory. The latter involve cases in which all feasible actions are forbidden. Some (especially, Valentyne 1987 and 1989) argue that plausible principles of deontic logic may well render obligation dilemmas impossible; but they do not preclude the possibility of prohibition dilemmas. The case of Sartre’s student, if genuinely dilemmatic, is an obligation dilemma; Sophie’s case is a prohibition dilemma. There is another reason that friends of dilemmas emphasize this distinction. Some think that the “disjunctive solution” used by opponents of dilemmas—when equally strong precepts conflict, the agent is required to act on one or the other—is more plausible when applied to obligation dilemmas than when applied to prohibition dilemmas.

As moral dilemmas are typically described, they involve a single agent . The agent ought, all things considered, to do $A$, ought, all things considered, to do $B$, and she cannot do both $A$ and $B$. But we can distinguish multi-person dilemmas from single agent ones. The two-person case is representative of multi-person dilemmas. The situation is such that one agent, P1, ought to do $A$, a second agent, P2, ought to do $B$, and though each agent can do what he ought to do, it is not possible both for P1 to do $A$ and P2 to do $B$. (See Marcus 1980, 122 and McConnell 1988.) Multi-person dilemmas have been called “interpersonal moral conflicts.” Such conflicts are most theoretically worrisome if the same moral system (or theory) generates the conflicting obligations for P1 and P2. A theory that precludes single-agent moral dilemmas remains uniquely action-guiding for each agent. But if that same theory does not preclude the possibility of interpersonal moral conflicts, not all agents will be able to succeed in discharging their obligations, no matter how well-motivated or how hard they try. For supporters of moral dilemmas, this distinction is not all that important. They no doubt welcome (theoretically) more types of dilemmas, since that may make their case more persuasive. But if they establish the reality of single-agent dilemmas, in one sense their work is done. For opponents of dilemmas, however, the distinction may be important. This is because at least some opponents believe that the conceptual argument against dilemmas applies principally to single-agent cases. It does so because the ought-to-do operator of deontic logic and the accompanying principles are properly understood to apply to entities who can make decisions. To be clear, this position does not preclude that collectives (such as businesses or nations) can have obligations. But a necessary condition for this being the case is that there is (or should be) a central deliberative standpoint from which decisions are made. This condition is not satisfied when two otherwise unrelated agents happen to have obligations both of which cannot be discharged. Put simply, while an individual act involving one agent can be the object of choice, a compound act involving multiple agents is difficult so to conceive. (See Smith 1986 and Thomason 1981.) Alexander Dietz (2022) has recently shown, however, that matters can be even more complicated. He describes a case where a small group of people have an obligation to save two strangers, but one of the members of the group has an obligation to save her own child at the same time. The small group and the individual can both make choices, and the group’s obligation conflicts with that of the individual member (assuming that the group can succeed only if all members act in concert). This is an odd multi-agent dilemma, “one in which one of the agents is part of the other” (Dietz 2022, p. 66). Erin Taylor (2011) has argued that neither universalizability nor the principle that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ ensure that there will be no interpersonal moral conflicts (what she calls “irreconcilable differences”). These conflicts would raise no difficulties if morality required trying rather than acting, but such a view is not plausible. Still, moral theories should minimize cases of interpersonal conflict (Taylor 2011, pp. 189–190).To the extent that the possibility of interpersonal moral conflicts raises an intramural dispute among opponents of dilemmas, that dispute concerns how to understand the principles of deontic logic and what can reasonably be demanded of moral theories.

Another issue raised by the topic of moral dilemmas is the relationship among various aspects of morality. Consider this distinction. General obligations are moral requirements that individuals have simply because they are moral agents. That agents are required not to kill, not to steal, and not to assault are examples of general obligations. Agency alone makes these precepts applicable to individuals. By contrast, role-related obligations are moral requirements that agents have in virtue of their role, occupation, or position in society. That lifeguards are required to save swimmers in distress is a role-related obligation. Another example, mentioned earlier, is the obligation of a defense attorney to hold in confidence the disclosures made by a client. These categories need not be exclusive. It is likely that anyone who is in a position to do so ought to save a drowning person. And if a person has particularly sensitive information about another, she should probably not reveal it to third parties regardless of how the information was obtained. But lifeguards have obligations to help swimmers in distress when most others do not because of their abilities and contractual commitments. And lawyers have special obligations of confidentiality to their clients because of implicit promises and the need to maintain trust.

General obligations and role-related obligations can, and sometimes do, conflict. If a defense attorney knows the whereabouts of a deceased body, she may have a general obligation to reveal this information to family members of the deceased. But if she obtained this information from her client, the role-related obligation of confidentiality prohibits her from sharing it with others. Supporters of dilemmas may regard conflicts of this sort as just another confirmation of their thesis. Opponents of dilemmas will have to hold that one of the conflicting obligations takes priority. The latter task could be discharged if it were shown that one these two types of obligations always prevails over the other. But such a claim is implausible; for it seems that in some cases of conflict general obligations are stronger, while in other cases role-related duties take priority. The case seems to be made even better for supporters of dilemmas, and worse for opponents, when we consider that the same agent can occupy multiple roles that create conflicting requirements. The physician, Harvey Kelekian, in Margaret Edson’s (1999/1993) Pulitzer Prize winning play, Wit, is an oncologist, a medical researcher, and a teacher of residents. The obligations generated by those roles lead Dr. Kelekian to treat his patient, Vivian Bearing, in ways that seem morally questionable (McConnell 2009). At first blush, anyway, it does not seem possible for Kelekian to discharge all of the obligations associated with these various roles.

In the context of issues raised by the possibility of moral dilemmas, the role most frequently discussed is that of the political actor. Michael Walzer (1973) claims that the political ruler, qua political ruler, ought to do what is best for the state; that is his principal role-related obligation. But he also ought to abide by the general obligations incumbent on all. Sometimes the political actor’s role-related obligations require him to do evil—that is, to violate some general obligations. Among the examples given by Walzer are making a deal with a dishonest ward boss (necessary to get elected so that he can do good) and authorizing the torture of a person in order to uncover a plot to bomb a public building. Since each of these requirements is binding, Walzer believes that the politician faces a genuine moral dilemma, though, strangely, he also thinks that the politician should choose the good of the community rather than abide by the general moral norms. (The issue here is whether supporters of dilemmas can meaningfully talk about action-guidance in genuinely dilemmatic situations. For one who answers this in the affirmative, see Tessman 2015, especially Chapter 5.) Such a situation is sometimes called “the dirty hands problem.” The expression, “dirty hands,” is taken from the title of a play by Sartre (1946). The idea is that no one can rule without becoming morally tainted. The role itself is fraught with moral dilemmas. This topic has received much attention recently. John Parrish (2007) has provided a detailed history of how philosophers from Plato to Adam Smith have dealt with the issue. And C.A.J. Coady (2008) has suggested that this reveals a “messy morality.”

For opponents of moral dilemmas, the problem of dirty hands represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to show how conflicts between general obligations and role-related obligations, and those among the various role-related obligations, can be resolved in a principled way. The opportunity for theories that purport to have the resources to eliminate dilemmas—such as Kantianism, utilitarianism, and intuitionism—is to show how the many moralities under which people are governed are related.

Debates about moral dilemmas have been extensive during the last six decades. These debates go to the heart of moral theory. Both supporters and opponents of moral dilemmas have major burdens to bear. Opponents of dilemmas must show why appearances are deceiving. Why are examples of apparent dilemmas misleading? Why are certain moral emotions appropriate if the agent has done no wrong? Supporters must show why several of many apparently plausible principles should be given up—principles such as PC, PD, OP, D, ‘ought’ implies ‘can’, and the agglomeration principle. And each side must provide a general account of obligations, explaining whether none, some, or all can be overridden in particular circumstances. Much progress has been made, but the debate is apt to continue.

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What Is Morality?

Societal underpinnings of "right" and "wrong"

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk, "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

How Morals Are Established

Morals that transcend time and culture, examples of morals, morality vs. ethics, morality and laws.

Morality refers to the set of standards that enable people to live cooperatively in groups. It’s what societies determine to be “right” and “acceptable.”

Sometimes, acting in a moral manner means individuals must sacrifice their own short-term interests to benefit society. Individuals who go against these standards may be considered immoral.

It may be helpful to differentiate between related terms, such as immoral , nonmoral , and amoral . Each has a slightly different meaning:

Immoral : Describes someone who purposely commits an offensive act, even though they know the difference between what is right and wrong
Nonmoral : Describes situations in which morality is not a concern
Amoral : Describes someone who acknowledges the difference between right and wrong, but who is not concerned with morality

Morality isn’t fixed. What’s considered acceptable in your culture might not be acceptable in another culture. Geographical regions, religion, family, and life experiences all influence morals.

Scholars don’t agree on exactly how morals are developed. However, there are several theories that have gained attention over the years:

Freud’s morality and the superego: Sigmund Freud suggested moral development occurred as a person’s ability to set aside their selfish needs (id) to be replaced by the values of important socializing agents, such as a person’s parents, teachers, and institutions (superego).
Piaget’s theory of moral development: Jean Piaget focused on the social-cognitive perspective of moral development. He theorized that moral development unfolds over time alongside the progressing stages of cognitive development. Early on, children learn to adopt certain moral behaviors for their own sake (it makes them feel good), rather than just abide by moral codes because they don’t want to get into trouble. By adolescence, you can think more abstractly, and begin to make moral decisions based on higher universal principles and the greater good of society.
B.F. Skinner’s behavioral theory: B.F. Skinner focused on the power of external forces that shaped an individual’s development. For example, a child who receives praise for being kind may treat someone with kindness again out of a desire to receive more positive attention in the future.
Kohlberg’s moral reasoning: Lawrence Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral development that went beyond Piaget’s theory. Through a series of questions or moral dilemmas, Kohlberg proposed that an adult’s stage of reasoning could be identified.
Gilligan's perspective of gender differences in moral reasoning . Carol Gilligan criticized Kohlberg for being male-centric in his theory of moral development. She explained that men are more justice-oriented in their moral reasoning; whereas, women are more care-oriented . Within that context, moral dilemmas will have different solutions depending on which gender is doing the reasoning.

What Is the Basis of Morality?

There are different theories as to how morals are developed. However, most theories acknowledge the external factors (parents, community, etc.) that contribute to a child's moral development. These morals are intended to benefit the group that has created them.

Most morals aren’t fixed. They usually shift and change over time.

Ideas about whether certain behaviors are moral—such as engaging in pre-marital sex, entering into same-sex relationships, and using cannabis—have shifted over time. While the bulk of the population once viewed these behaviors as “wrong,” the vast majority of the population now finds these activities to be “acceptable.”

In some regions, cultures, and religions, using contraception is considered immoral. In other parts of the world, some people consider contraception the moral thing to do, as it reduces unplanned pregnancy, manages the population, and reduces the risk of sexually transmitted illnesses.

7 Universal Morals

Some morals seem to transcend across the globe and across time, however. Researchers have discovered that these seven morals seem somewhat universal:

Defer to authority
Help your group
Love your family
Return favors
Respect others’ property

The following are common morality examples that you may have been taught growing up, and may have even passed on to younger generations:

Have empathy
Don't steal
Tell the truth
Treat others as you want to be treated

People might adhere to these principles by:

Being an upstanding citizen
Doing volunteer work
Donating money to charity
Forgiving someone
Not gossiping about others
Offering their time and help to others

To get a sense of the types of morality you were raised with, think about what your parents, community and/or religious leaders told you that you "should" or "ought" to do.

Some scholars don’t distinguish between morals and ethics . Both have to do with “right and wrong.”

However, some people believe morality is personal while ethics refer to the standards of a community.

For example, your community may not view premarital sex as a problem. But on a personal level, you might consider it immoral. By this definition, your morality would contradict the ethics of your community.

Both laws and morals are meant to regulate behavior in a community to allow people to live in harmony. Both have firm foundations in the concept that everyone should have autonomy and show respect to one another.

Legal thinkers interpret the relationship between laws and morality differently. Some argue that laws and morality are independent. This means that laws can’t be disregarded simply because they’re morally indefensible.

Others believe law and morality are interdependent. These thinkers believe that laws that claim to regulate behavioral expectations must be in harmony with moral norms. Therefore, all laws must secure the welfare of the individual and be in place for the good of the community.

Something like adultery may be considered immoral by some, but it’s legal in most states. Additionally, it’s illegal to drive slightly over the speed limit but it isn’t necessarily considered immoral to do so.

There may be times when some people argue that breaking the law is the “moral” thing to do. Stealing food to feed a starving person, for example, might be illegal but it also might be considered the “right thing” to do if it’s the only way to prevent someone from suffering or dying.

Think About It

It can be helpful to spend some time thinking about the morals that guide your decisions about things like friendship, money, education, and family. Understanding what’s really important to you can help you understand yourself better and it may make difficult decisions easier.

Merriam-Webster. A lesson on 'unmoral,' 'immoral,' 'nonmoral,' and 'amoral.'

Ellemers N, van der Toorn J, Paunov Y, van Leeuwen T. The psychology of morality: A review and analysis of empirical studies published from 1940 through 2017 . Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2019;23(4):332-366. doi:10.1177/1088868318811759

Curry OS, Mullins DA, Whitehouse H. Is it good to cooperate? Testing the theory of morality-as-cooperation in 60 societies . Current Anthropology. 2019;60(1):47-69. doi:10.1086/701478

Encyclopædia Britannica. What's the difference between morality and ethics?

Moka-Mubelo W. Law and morality . In: Reconciling Law and Morality in Human Rights Discourse . Vol 3. Springer International Publishing; 2017:51-88. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49496-8_3

By Amy Morin, LCSW Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk, "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

The greatest moral challenge of our time? It’s how we think about morality itself

Honorary Associate in Philosophy, University of Sydney

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Tim Dean does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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In this series, we have invited philosophers to write about what they consider to be the greatest moral challenge of our time, and how we should address it.

It would be easy to conclude that there’s a deficit of morality in the world today. That if only people were more motivated to behave ethically, if only they made morality more prominent in their thinking, then the world would be a better place.

But when it comes to pinning down a single greatest moral challenge of our time, I’d argue that there’s not a lack of morality in the world; there’s too much.

In fact, I believe the greatest moral challenge of our time is our flawed conception of morality itself. The way we tend to think and talk about morality stifles our ability to engage with views other than our own, it makes managing diversity and disagreement harder, and it tends to lock us into thinking patterns that produce more instances of suffering and unrest than they solve.

Right, wrong, black, white

Murder is wrong. This is not just a matter of subjective personal preference, it’s an objective fact. That means if it’s true for me, then it’s true for you and for everyone else too. And if someone claims that murder is OK, then they’re mistaken.

This is the way many of us tend to think and talk about many moral issues, not just murder. We refer to moral facts. And we prove our moral stance is the correct one by appealing to these facts.

Some of us justify these facts by appealing to commandments delivered to us by some divine being. Others justify it by appealing to natural rights, or fundamental facts about human nature, such as that suffering is intrinsically bad so we should prevent it wherever possible.

Many of us see morality as like a science, where we can learn new moral facts about the world, such as when we discovered that slavery was wrong or that women ought to have the same rights as men, and we updated our moral attitudes accordingly.

Three problems

I believe there are three major problems with this commonsense view of morality.

First: it’s wrong.

I’m not convinced there is any objective source of morality. I’ve spent a lot of time looking for one but am yet to find anything that isn’t deeply unconvincing.

Even if you believe there is a divine moral source that can dictate absolute right from wrong, it’s still down to us mere mortals to figure out the correct interpretation of its will. And history has shown that disagreements over rival interpretations of divine goodness can cause untold suffering, and still do today when dogmatists attempt to force their version of morality on the unwilling.

The second problem is that the idea of there being One True Morality is fundamentally at odds with the vast amount of moral diversity we see around the world. For example, there is widespread disagreement over whether the state should be able to execute criminals, whether terminally ill people have a right to die, and how sexuality can be expressed and practised in private and public.

If you believe that morality is a matter of objective truth, then this diversity means that most (if not all) people throughout the world are just plain wrong about their most deeply held moral convictions. If that’s the case, then it speaks poorly of our collective ability to understand what morality is at all.

Read more: Looking for truth in the Facebook age? Seek out views you aren't going to 'like'

The third problem is that this view of morality steers us towards thinking in black and white terms. It directs moral discourse towards proving other people wrong, or bending them to our moral views. It makes it much harder, if not impossible, for people to take other moral viewpoints seriously and engage in ethical negotiation or compromise.

This is one of the major reasons that social media, not to mention dinner table, discourse is in such a terrible state right now. Those on one side simply write off their opponents as being morally perverse, which shuts down any possibility of positive engagement or bipartisan cooperation.

Moral reform

So to respond to the greatest moral challenge of our time, we need to seriously rethink morality itself.

The best way to think about morality is as a cultural tool that we humans invented to help us live and work together in social situations. After all, we each have our interests that we want to pursue. They vary from individual to individual, but generally include things like being able to provide for ourselves and our loved ones, avoiding suffering and hardship, and pursuing pleasurable and fulfilling experiences.

The best way to satisfy these interests is to live socially, interacting and cooperating with others. But often our interests, or means of satisfying them, conflict with others. And that conflict can end up being bad for everyone.

So morality is the set of rules we live by that seek to reduce harm and help us live together effectively. We didn’t just discover it. It wasn’t handed to us from above. We had to figure it out for ourselves.

Of course, we haven’t always thought about morality in these terms, so we’ve justified it in any number of ways, often by appealing to religion or tradition. But we haven’t updated our thinking about morality to purge it of the baggage that came with religion and the rigid cultural conformity of the past.

We now know there are many ways of pursuing a fulfilling life, and the rules that promote one version might conflict with the ways of another. So moral rules that encourage strong communal bonds, for example, might conflict with the rules that enable people to choose their own life path.

Also, the problems that morality is trying to solve vary from one place to the next. People living in a small community in a resource-limited area like the Arctic tundra have different problems to solve than people living in a modern metropolis like Sydney or Melbourne, surrounded by abundance. If we apply the morality of the former to the latter environment, we can exacerbate conflict rather than resolve it.

All this means that morality should be less about “proving” your view and more about tolerance and negotiation. We need to learn to understand that different people - and different communities and cultures - have different conceptions of the good life. And we need to understand that the problems of social living, and their solutions, don’t apply equally well in every community.

It also means we must learn to become less morally dogmatic and more morally adaptable. Above all, we need to abandon the idea that morality is about objective facts that apply to all people at all times.

This doesn’t mean morality becomes an “anything goes” form of relativism. There are ways to judge the usefulness of a particular moral norm, namely: does it actually help solve the problems of social living for the people using it? Many don’t, so deserve to be challenged or reformed.

In an increasingly interconnected, diverse and multicultural world, it is more important than ever that we reform the way we think and talk about morality itself. If we don’t, no matter what other moral challenge you think we face, it will only become harder to solve.

Later articles in this series include Looking for truth in the Facebook age? Seek out views you aren’t going to ‘like’ and We need to become global citizens to rebuild trust in our globalised world .

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Moral Issues and Ethical Subjectivism Essay

Morality system, non-cognitivism, ethical subjectivism.

Morality refers to the system that determines whether a particular aspect or event is right. In other words, it refers to the guiding principle that encourages people to do a morally accepted thing in society. On the other hand, ethics pertains to the theoretical analysis of probity. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they differ in a number of ways. For instance, a morally accepted action might be considered evil in one society while the same act is justifiable in another society.

Moral codes differ from one society to the other. In some societies, engaging in sex with a fifteen-year old child girl is considered normal as long as the minor is not forced to do the act. However, this is morally and legally wrong in a modern society. Divine command theory can be employed in explaining the scenario where an adult male engages in sex with a fifteen-year-old girl. The theory states that a close relationship between morality and religion exists. In other words, theorists allied to this supposition are of the view that morality cannot exist without God. People are able to identify the right thing in society using the religious codes.

Based on this, religion outlines what should be done in society through its principles. For instance, sex before marriage is unethical because it results to fornication in Christianity. In fact, most moral codes are often borrowed from the major religious teachings, such as Christian principles. The hypothesis is believed to be strong because it proposes that gods control what is true and erroneous in society. However, it is often under criticism because the right and wrong things are not arbitrary. People commit sins because of certain reasons (word count 275).

Individuals allied to non-cognitivism believe that statements of facts or propositions are not always true because they represent generalized ideas. Such people do not underscore the fact that moral judgments are in a position to express an idea objectively owing to the fact that they simply explain the feature world. In their view, it is extremely difficult for an individual to establish the truth in the world since not all moral statements such as ‘murder is wrong’ are accurate.

Moreover, people lack knowledge to establish what is true in society, making it difficult to draw factual statements. Based on non-cognitivism, moral statements are simply expressions of an individual’s attitudes and viewpoints. The major aim of an individual is to influence the listener or the audience to change their attitudes towards a particular idea. Therefore, the idea that murder is wrong is simply meant to prevent members of the public from killing each other, but the real action is not wrong at all. Some scholars allied to the theory believe that moral statements are always put in place for people to follow, but they do not suggest that the idea is wrong.

To such scholars, statements such as murder might be wrong are accurate, but justifying the idea murder is wrong is misplaced. Therefore, non-cognitivism suggests that a big difference between factual statements and prescriptions exist. The wording and the intention of those in positions of influence bring about great differences as far as moral statements are concerned. Some words have more than two meanings hence their usage should be noted. For instance, the word courageous can be used in factual terms, as well as in normative terms. Normative usage of the word courageous is dominant as compared to its factual usage (word count: 291).

Abortion has always been a contradictory concept in many societies, including some of the developed societies. Deontological or the rights-based groups argue that it should be made illegal under all circumstances since it does not favor human life. Deontologists present a number of claims as to why abortion ought to be made illegal. One of the claims is that life starts just after fertilization and any attempt to terminate it should be resisted.

Since life starts after fertilization, it should be the role of human beings to safeguard it until conception. The second claim is that an attempt to procure an abortion is the violation of the right of the embryo, which results to unfair killing of the unborn baby. Based on the above claims, deontologists suggest in the third claim that a law should be formulated to curb the increasing cases of induced abortion, which are threatening human life. Through feminist organizations, women suggest that they should be granted permission to procure abortion since they have the right to control what is in their wombs.

Moreover, the right to abortion is an extension of the right to freedom owing to the fact that an individual should choose what to carry in his or her body. Deontologists are opposed to all these claims arguing that allowing women to procure abortion is dangerous to the existence of human beings. On the other hand, rule-utilitarianism suggests that an act is considered right based on the method applied in executing it. In other words, it does not take into consideration the results or the outcomes of the act. Therefore, rule-utilitarianism believes that abortion is justifiable in case the method applied in doing it is right. It only becomes illegal in case the method applied threatens the life of the mother (word count 296).

Each theory has its own major suppositions that are often different in a number of ways with other premises. Ethical subjectivism postulates that an individual often determines what is right and wrong based on his or her belief. In other words, what an individual believes to be right is always what motivates him or her to act. This means that an individual tends to deny the established common principles in favor of his or her own codes of conduct.

Others seem to criticize the moral codes just in case they do not favor them. Moral subjectivists have the tendency of approving all forms of behavior with the belief that people act based on their understanding. Therefore, such individuals will never disapprove the actions of the serial killer. Ethical egoism is a different moral theory, which suggests that the selfish interests of individual often determine the right and wrong things in society since people are known to play zero-sum game. The theory claims that an individual strives to achieve his or her personal interests, even if it entails killing other people.

Just as subjectivists, ethical egoists do not disapprove the actions of the serial killer, but the reason of disapproval of the behavior is different. Emotivism is a hypothetical belief that does not support moral judgments since people act based on their expressive feelings. Unlike subjectivism and ethical egoism, the theory does not even approve serial killing as an ethical issue. It disputes the fact that serial killing exists (word count 231).

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Bibliography

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Ethics and Morality

Morality, Ethics, Evil, Greed

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

To put it simply, ethics represents the moral code that guides a person’s choices and behaviors throughout their life. The idea of a moral code extends beyond the individual to include what is determined to be right, and wrong, for a community or society at large.

Ethics is concerned with rights, responsibilities, use of language, what it means to live an ethical life, and how people make moral decisions. We may think of moralizing as an intellectual exercise, but more frequently it's an attempt to make sense of our gut instincts and reactions. It's a subjective concept, and many people have strong and stubborn beliefs about what's right and wrong that can place them in direct contrast to the moral beliefs of others. Yet even though morals may vary from person to person, religion to religion, and culture to culture, many have been found to be universal, stemming from basic human emotions.

The Science of Being Virtuous
Understanding Amorality
The Stages of Moral Development

Those who are considered morally good are said to be virtuous, holding themselves to high ethical standards, while those viewed as morally bad are thought of as wicked, sinful, or even criminal. Morality was a key concern of Aristotle, who first studied questions such as “What is moral responsibility?” and “What does it take for a human being to be virtuous?”

We used to think that people are born with a blank slate, but research has shown that people have an innate sense of morality . Of course, parents and the greater society can certainly nurture and develop morality and ethics in children.

Humans are ethical and moral regardless of religion and God. People are not fundamentally good nor are they fundamentally evil. However, a Pew study found that atheists are much less likely than theists to believe that there are "absolute standards of right and wrong." In effect, atheism does not undermine morality, but the atheist’s conception of morality may depart from that of the traditional theist.

Animals are like humans—and humans are animals, after all. Many studies have been conducted across animal species, and more than 90 percent of their behavior is what can be identified as “prosocial” or positive. Plus, you won’t find mass warfare in animals as you do in humans. Hence, in a way, you can say that animals are more moral than humans.

The examination of moral psychology involves the study of moral philosophy but the field is more concerned with how a person comes to make a right or wrong decision, rather than what sort of decisions he or she should have made. Character, reasoning, responsibility, and altruism , among other areas, also come into play, as does the development of morality.

The seven deadly sins were first enumerated in the sixth century by Pope Gregory I, and represent the sweep of immoral behavior. Also known as the cardinal sins or seven deadly vices, they are vanity, jealousy , anger , laziness, greed, gluttony, and lust. People who demonstrate these immoral behaviors are often said to be flawed in character. Some modern thinkers suggest that virtue often disguises a hidden vice; it just depends on where we tip the scale .

An amoral person has no sense of, or care for, what is right or wrong. There is no regard for either morality or immorality. Conversely, an immoral person knows the difference, yet he does the wrong thing, regardless. The amoral politician, for example, has no conscience and makes choices based on his own personal needs; he is oblivious to whether his actions are right or wrong.

One could argue that the actions of Wells Fargo, for example, were amoral if the bank had no sense of right or wrong. In the 2016 fraud scandal, the bank created fraudulent savings and checking accounts for millions of clients, unbeknownst to them. Of course, if the bank knew what it was doing all along, then the scandal would be labeled immoral.

Everyone tells white lies to a degree, and often the lie is done for the greater good. But the idea that a small percentage of people tell the lion’s share of lies is the Pareto principle, the law of the vital few. It is 20 percent of the population that accounts for 80 percent of a behavior.

We do know what is right from wrong . If you harm and injure another person, that is wrong. However, what is right for one person, may well be wrong for another. A good example of this dichotomy is the religious conservative who thinks that a woman’s right to her body is morally wrong. In this case, one’s ethics are based on one’s values; and the moral divide between values can be vast.

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg established his stages of moral development in 1958. This framework has led to current research into moral psychology. Kohlberg's work addresses the process of how we think of right and wrong and is based on Jean Piaget's theory of moral judgment for children. His stages include pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional, and what we learn in one stage is integrated into the subsequent stages.

The pre-conventional stage is driven by obedience and punishment . This is a child's view of what is right or wrong. Examples of this thinking: “I hit my brother and I received a time-out.” “How can I avoid punishment?” “What's in it for me?”

The conventional stage is when we accept societal views on rights and wrongs. In this stage people follow rules with a good boy and nice girl orientation. An example of this thinking: “Do it for me.” This stage also includes law-and-order morality: “Do your duty.”

The post-conventional stage is more abstract: “Your right and wrong is not my right and wrong.” This stage goes beyond social norms and an individual develops his own moral compass, sticking to personal principles of what is ethical or not.

Most people want honest public officials. For those who are not, behavioral economists have uncovered tactics that can reduce lying by up to 50%.

Is karma a firm basis for morality?

A new study suggests that scientists tend to inflate their own research ethics. One important implication is that this overconfidence may lead to ethical blindspots.

Today we celebrate the 300th birthday of Immanuel Kant. Embrace face-to-face encounters to live up to his motto Dare to Know!

Two award-winning movies about the Holocaust raise questions about whether they contribute to ethical behavior. Some critics say no.

For beauty, we paint our faces, starve ourselves to the bone, feel the burn, suck out our fat, freeze our faces, cut into our skin, and place foreign bodies into our skin.

A popular management philosophy views employees primarily as costs to be minimized.

Do you believe there is a decline in morality in the United States? The reasons you feel that way may surprise you.

Unlike a bystander, who passively watches events unfold without intervening, an upstander takes action to support fairness and respect. Sometimes that means breaking the rules.

Prosecution for war crimes is not only about deterring future crimes, also about preventing anger that continues across the generations.

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America’s Abortion Quandary

2. Social and moral considerations on abortion

Table of contents.

Abortion at various stages of pregnancy
Abortion and circumstances of pregnancy
Parental notification for minors seeking abortion
Penalties for abortions performed illegally
Public views of what would change the number of abortions in the U.S.
A majority of Americans say women should have more say in setting abortion policy in the U.S.
How do certain arguments about abortion resonate with Americans?
In their own words: How Americans feel about abortion
Personal connections to abortion
Religion’s impact on views about abortion
Acknowledgments
The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Relatively few Americans view the morality of abortion in stark terms: Overall, just 7% of all U.S. adults say abortion is morally acceptable in all cases, and 13% say it is morally wrong in all cases. A third say that abortion is morally wrong in most cases, while about a quarter (24%) say it is morally acceptable most of the time. About an additional one-in-five do not consider abortion a moral issue.

A chart showing wide religious and partisan differences in views of the morality of abortion

There are wide differences on this question by political party and religious affiliation. Among Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party, most say that abortion is morally wrong either in most (48%) or all cases (20%). Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, meanwhile, only about three-in-ten (29%) hold a similar view. About four-in-ten Democrats say abortion is morally acceptable in most (32%) or all (11%) cases, while an additional 28% say abortion is not a moral issue.

White evangelical Protestants overwhelmingly say abortion is morally wrong in most (51%) or all cases (30%). A slim majority of Catholics (53%) also view abortion as morally wrong, but many also say it is morally acceptable in most (24%) or all cases (4%), or that it is not a moral issue (17%). And among religiously unaffiliated Americans, about three-quarters see abortion as morally acceptable (45%) or not a moral issue (32%).

There is strong alignment between people’s views of whether abortion is morally wrong and whether it should be illegal. For example, among U.S. adults who take the view that abortion should be illegal in all cases without exception, fully 86% also say abortion is always morally wrong. The prevailing view among adults who say abortion should be legal in all circumstances is that abortion is not a moral issue (44%), though notable shares of this group also say it is morally acceptable in all (27%) or most (22%) cases.

Most Americans who say abortion should be illegal with some exceptions take the view that abortion is morally wrong in most cases (69%). Those who say abortion should be legal with some exceptions are somewhat more conflicted, with 43% deeming abortion morally acceptable in most cases and 26% saying it is morally wrong in most cases; an additional 24% say it is not a moral issue.

The survey also asked respondents who said abortion is morally wrong in at least some cases whether there are situations where abortion should still be legal despite being morally wrong. Roughly half of U.S. adults (48%) say that there are, in fact, situations where abortion is morally wrong but should still be legal, while just 22% say that whenever abortion is morally wrong, it should also be illegal. An additional 28% either said abortion is morally acceptable in all cases or not a moral issue, and thus did not receive the follow-up question.

Across both political parties and all major Christian subgroups – including Republicans and White evangelicals – there are substantially more people who say that there are situations where abortion should still be legal despite being morally wrong than there are who say that abortion should always be illegal when it is morally wrong.

A chart showing roughly half of Americans say there are situations where abortion is morally wrong, but should still be legal

Asked about the impact a number of policy changes would have on the number of abortions in the U.S., nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) say “more support for women during pregnancy, such as financial assistance or employment protections” would reduce the number of abortions in the U.S. Six-in-ten say the same about expanding sex education and similar shares say more support for parents (58%), making it easier to place children for adoption in good homes (57%) and passing stricter abortion laws (57%) would have this effect.

While about three-quarters of White evangelical Protestants (74%) say passing stricter abortion laws would reduce the number of abortions in the U.S., about half of religiously unaffiliated Americans (48%) hold this view. Similarly, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say this (67% vs. 49%, respectively). By contrast, while about seven-in-ten unaffiliated adults (69%) say expanding sex education would reduce the number of abortions in the U.S., only about half of White evangelicals (48%) say this. Democrats also are substantially more likely than Republicans to hold this view (70% vs. 50%).

Democrats are somewhat more likely than Republicans to say support for parents – such as paid family leave or more child care options – would reduce the number of abortions in the country (64% vs. 53%, respectively), while Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say making adoption into good homes easier would reduce abortions (64% vs. 52%).

Majorities across both parties and other subgroups analyzed in this report say that more support for women during pregnancy would reduce the number of abortions in America.

A chart showing Republicans more likely than Democrats to say passing stricter abortion laws would reduce number of abortions in the United States

More than half of U.S. adults (56%) say women should have more say than men when it comes to setting policies around abortion in this country – including 42% who say women should have “a lot” more say. About four-in-ten (39%) say men and women should have equal say in abortion policies, and 3% say men should have more say than women.

Six-in-ten women and about half of men (51%) say that women should have more say on this policy issue.

Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say women should have more say than men in setting abortion policy (70% vs. 41%). Similar shares of Protestants (48%) and Catholics (51%) say women should have more say than men on this issue, while the share of religiously unaffiliated Americans who say this is much higher (70%).

Seeking to gauge Americans’ reactions to several common arguments related to abortion, the survey presented respondents with six statements and asked them to rate how well each statement reflects their views on a five-point scale ranging from “extremely well” to “not at all well.”

About half of U.S. adults say if legal abortions are too hard to get, women will seek out unsafe ones

The list included three statements sometimes cited by individuals wishing to protect a right to abortion: “The decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman,” “If legal abortions are too hard to get, then women will seek out unsafe abortions from unlicensed providers,” and “If legal abortions are too hard to get, then it will be more difficult for women to get ahead in society.” The first two of these resonate with the greatest number of Americans, with about half (53%) saying each describes their views “extremely” or “very” well. In other words, among the statements presented in the survey, U.S. adults are most likely to say that women alone should decide whether to have an abortion, and that making abortion illegal will lead women into unsafe situations.

The three other statements are similar to arguments sometimes made by those who wish to restrict access to abortions: “Human life begins at conception, so a fetus is a person with rights,” “If legal abortions are too easy to get, then people won’t be as careful with sex and contraception,” and “If legal abortions are too easy to get, then some pregnant women will be pressured into having an abortion even when they don’t want to.”

Fewer than half of Americans say each of these statements describes their views extremely or very well. Nearly four-in-ten endorse the notion that “human life begins at conception, so a fetus is a person with rights” (26% say this describes their views extremely well, 12% very well), while about a third say that “if legal abortions are too easy to get, then people won’t be as careful with sex and contraception” (20% extremely well, 15% very well).

When it comes to statements cited by proponents of abortion rights, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to identify with all three of these statements, as are religiously unaffiliated Americans compared with Catholics and Protestants. Women also are more likely than men to express these views – and especially more likely to say that decisions about abortion should fall solely to pregnant women and that restrictions on abortion will put women in unsafe situations. Younger adults under 30 are particularly likely to express the view that if legal abortions are too hard to get, then it will be difficult for women to get ahead in society.

A chart showing most Democrats say decisions about abortion should fall solely to pregnant women

In the case of the three statements sometimes cited by opponents of abortion, the patterns generally go in the opposite direction. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say each statement reflects their views “extremely” or “very” well, as are Protestants (especially White evangelical Protestants) and Catholics compared with the religiously unaffiliated. In addition, older Americans are more likely than young adults to say that human life begins at conception and that easy access to abortion encourages unsafe sex.

Gender differences on these questions, however, are muted. In fact, women are just as likely as men to say that human life begins at conception, so a fetus is a person with rights (39% and 38%, respectively).

A chart showing nearly three-quarters of White evangelicals say human life begins at conception

Analyzing certain statements together allows for an examination of the extent to which individuals can simultaneously hold two views that may seem to some as in conflict. For instance, overall, one-in-three U.S. adults say that both the statement “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman” and the statement “human life begins at conception, so the fetus is a person with rights” reflect their own views at least somewhat well. This includes 12% of adults who say both statements reflect their views “extremely” or “very” well.

Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to say both statements reflect their own views at least somewhat well (36% vs. 30%), although Republicans are much more likely to say only the statement about the fetus being a person with rights reflects their views at least somewhat well (39% vs. 9%) and Democrats are much more likely to say only the statement about the decision to have an abortion belonging solely to the pregnant woman reflects their views at least somewhat well (55% vs. 19%).

Additionally, those who take the stance that abortion should be legal in all cases with no exceptions are overwhelmingly likely (76%) to say only the statement about the decision belonging solely to the pregnant woman reflects their views extremely, very or somewhat well, while a nearly identical share (73%) of those who say abortion should be illegal in all cases with no exceptions say only the statement about human life beginning at conception reflects their views at least somewhat well.

A chart showing one-third of U.S. adults say both that abortion decision belongs solely to the pregnant woman, and that life begins at conception and fetuses have rights

When asked to describe whether they had any other additional views or feelings about abortion, adults shared a range of strong or complex views about the topic. In many cases, Americans reiterated their strong support – or opposition to – abortion in the U.S. Others reflected on how difficult or nuanced the issue was, offering emotional responses or personal experiences to one of two open-ended questions asked on the survey.

One open-ended question asked respondents if they wanted to share any other views or feelings about abortion overall. The other open-ended question asked respondents about their feelings or views regarding abortion restrictions. The responses to both questions were similar.

Overall, about three-in-ten adults offered a response to either of the open-ended questions. There was little difference in the likelihood to respond by party, religion or gender, though people who say they have given a “lot” of thought to the issue were more likely to respond than people who have not.

Of those who did offer additional comments, about a third of respondents said something in support of legal abortion. By far the most common sentiment expressed was that the decision to have an abortion should be solely a personal decision, or a decision made jointly with a woman and her health care provider, with some saying simply that it “should be between a woman and her doctor.” Others made a more general point, such as one woman who said, “A woman’s body and health should not be subject to legislation.”

About one-in-five of the people who responded to the question expressed disapproval of abortion – the most common reason being a belief that a fetus is a person or that abortion is murder. As one woman said, “It is my belief that life begins at conception and as much as is humanly possible, we as a society need to support, protect and defend each one of those little lives.” Others in this group pointed to the fact that they felt abortion was too often used as a form of birth control. For example, one man said, “Abortions are too easy to obtain these days. It seems more women are using it as a way of birth control.”

About a quarter of respondents who opted to answer one of the open-ended questions said that their views about abortion were complex; many described having mixed feelings about the issue or otherwise expressed sympathy for both sides of the issue. One woman said, “I am personally opposed to abortion in most cases, but I think it would be detrimental to society to make it illegal. I was alive before the pill and before legal abortions. Many women died.” And one man said, “While I might feel abortion may be wrong in some cases, it is never my place as a man to tell a woman what to do with her body.”

The remaining responses were either not related to the topic or were difficult to interpret.

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From Morality to the End of Reason: An Essay on Rights, Reasons, and Responsibility

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The Conclusion summarizes the moral revision that the book has argued for. Common-sense morality features the act-omission doctrine which was traced to a theory of negative rights and a conception of responsibility as being based on causality. It was argued that these be replaced by reasons of beneficence and a conception of responsibility as based on what is under the influence of practical reasons. Since reasons of beneficence are weaker than reasons of rights, the revised morality will be less authoritative. It will also be less authoritative because practical reasons are desire-dependent and, thus, cannot be universally binding. The question is whether this revised morality will be authoritative enough to command our compliance which seems necessary for us to cope with the greatest moral problems of our time, such as aid to developing countries and anthropogenic climate change.

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Guest Essay

Do Not Make Survival Even More Difficult for People on the Streets

A photo of a cardboard box broken down to form a sleeping pad.

By Laura Riley

Ms. Riley is the director of the clinical program at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “Homeless Advocacy.”

In 2013, Grants Pass, Ore., came up with a strategy to deal with a growing homeless population in the city of roughly 40,000, one that might best be described as kicking the can down the road.

Through a series of ordinances, the city essentially made it illegal to sleep outside in public. In particular, anyone sleeping anywhere in public with bedding, a blanket or a sleeping bag would be breaking the law.

“The point,” the City Council president explained at the time, “is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road.”

Unhoused individuals wouldn’t have much choice. There are no homeless shelters in Grants Pass. At least 600 people in the city were unhoused in 2018 and 2019, according to counts by a local nonprofit that serves the unhoused.

Now the United States Supreme Court is being asked whether the enforcement of the city’s camping regulations, which apply to all of the city’s residents but affect them in vastly different ways, violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday.

Of course, weighing the legality of camping obscures the real issue, which is how, in a nation with roughly 650,000 unhoused people, the federal, state and local governments can make sure there are enough beds for people to sleep in. Forcing unhoused people to the next town does not create housing that is affordable or available.

The case is an appeal to a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that prohibited Grants Pass from using citations to enforce its public camping ordinance. The Ninth Circuit had earlier prohibited cities from enforcing criminal restrictions on public camping unless there was access to adequate temporary shelter.

In the decision being challenged by Grants Pass, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the city “cannot, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, enforce its anti-camping ordinances against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements, or for sleeping in their car at night, when there is no other place in the city for them to go.”

Which there rarely is, in Grants Pass or elsewhere, and which is why people often have no choice but to sleep outside.

In a friend of the court brief, the National Homelessness Law Center argued that Grants Pass had “rejected” its obligation to care for unhoused residents and that vulnerable groups would continue to be marginalized unless the court decides once and for all that those ordinances are cruel. In its brief to the court, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund noted that the laws disproportionately affect people with disabilities and don’t serve any rehabilitative or deterrent interest.

If nothing else, one thing this case has done is unite many officials on the left and the right of the political spectrum, from San Francisco to Arizona. They have complained in briefs to the court that the Ninth Circuit has hamstrung their communities in dealing with homeless encampments.

But homelessness arises from policy decisions, not from a ruling by an appellate court. The Supreme Court should uphold the Ninth Circuit’s ruling. Otherwise it will open the door for communities to pass local laws that effectively punish unhoused people for existing within their borders, making what is clearly cruel permissible.

It would not be unexpected for the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to give the green light for the kind of camping bans at issue. Unhoused people would be pushed further to the margins, increasingly out of sight and mind. They will still be out there, parked in cars in rural areas or subsisting on urban streets, perhaps after being fined or jailed for the crime of trying to survive without a roof over their heads.

This case shines a light on the abdication of responsibility by governments at all levels to their unhoused residents. Instead of arguing about the legality of bans on sleeping in public, we should be asking: Why move people down the road to another community, one that is likely also short on shelter beds?

There is no doubt that the path to creating permanent housing (and more temporary shelter) is politically challenging and expensive. But there are many solutions along this path that go beyond what lawyers and the courts, even our highest one, can accomplish, and that the public should be demanding.

Governments at all levels should invest in homelessness prevention programs and strategies. Those include providing housing subsidies to people who otherwise could lose their housing and supportive transitional services for those leaving mental health treatment and correctional centers.

People on the brink of homelessness should have a right to counsel in eviction proceedings and should be offered the possibility of mediation in housing courts to give them a chance to remain in their houses or apartments.

Businesses should be increasing employment opportunities by not requiring a permanent address in job applications. Lawmakers should create more pathways for people to clear their criminal records, some that arise from targeted enforcement of low-level, nonviolent offenses, because those records can make it much more difficult to get a job.

For populations with unique needs, such as young people and veterans, social service agencies should pursue particularized interventions that address the underlying reasons that pushed individuals into homelessness.

And, of course, we should be building more housing, plain and simple, and we should be providing affordable housing incentives in areas with grocery stores and medical care nearby.

The Supreme Court should not further criminalize homelessness. But whether it does or not, this case should put governments at all levels on notice that humane policies can help to reduce homelessness. We don’t have to let this crisis continue.

Laura Riley is the director of the clinical program at the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “Homeless Advocacy.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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157 Morality Essay Topics & Examples
157 Topics on Morality & Essay Samples. Updated: Mar 2nd, 2024. 17 min. In your morality essay, you can cover ethical dilemmas, philosophy, or controversial issues. To decide on your topic, check out this compilation of 138 titles prepared by our experts. We will write.
180 Ethics Topics & Ethical Questions to Debate
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies moral issues. This article outlines the three different types of ethics and presents a list of compelling ethics topics for essays and research papers, as well as ethical questions to debate. ... 🤔 Ethical Topics for an Essay. Ethical issues are situations in which an individual needs to evaluate ...
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Good looks are highly prized in society. You can see advertisements everywhere urging you to buy products that will supposedly enhance your appearance. While many products are topical, plastic surgery is probably the ultimate game-changer. Going under the knife to enhance your looks can be a quick fix and help you achieve the look you desire.
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Start with choosing an issue you want to discuss in the paper. Some good ethics essay topics and examples we can suggest are: The aspects of utilitarianism as an ethical theory. Ethical dilemmas in the field of healthcare. Theories that explain human behavior. The significance of the personal code of ethics.
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An ethics essay is a type of academic writing that explores ethical issues and dilemmas. Students should evaluates them in terms of moral principles and values. The purpose of an ethics essay is to examine the moral implications of a particular issue, and provide a reasoned argument in support of an ethical perspective.
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203 Ethical Dilemma Topics & Moral Issues. If you are searching for the most interesting ethical dilemma essay topics, welcome to our base! An ethical dilemma essay requires you to study difficult choices involving conflicting moral principles, personal values, and societal norms. Our ethical dilemma topics will guide you through medical ethics ...
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Involvement of a difference of belief is a moral issue. A slight difference between moral issues and ethical issues is about "preference." Such issues play an important role in business dealings. This essay discusses various ethical and moral issues in business. Also difference between personal ethics and business ethics is discussed.
Moral Dilemmas
Supporters of dilemmas may draw a distinction between dilemmas of type \ (V\) and \ (W\). The upshot is typically a message to opponents of dilemmas: "You think that all moral conflicts are resolvable. And that is understandable, because conflicts of type \ (V\) are resolvable. But conflicts of type \ (W\) are not resolvable.
Morality: Definition, Theories, and Examples
Freud's morality and the superego: Sigmund Freud suggested moral development occurred as a person's ability to set aside their selfish needs (id) to be replaced by the values of important socializing agents, such as a person's parents, teachers, and institutions (superego). Piaget's theory of moral development: Jean Piaget focused on the social-cognitive perspective of moral development.
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Ethical egoism is a different moral theory, which suggests that the selfish interests of individual often determine the right and wrong things in society since people are known to play zero-sum game. The theory claims that an individual strives to achieve his or her personal interests, even if it entails killing other people.
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A third kind of issue that arises in a moral debate is a genuine moral issue, i.e. a question having to do with the relevance or application of one or more moral principles. Notice that there is a broad and a narrow sense of the term "moral issue." In the broad sense, the entire set of factual, conceptual, and moral issues raised by James'
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23. Can charity be considered a moral obligation? Should it be considered an obligation of the wealthy people? 24. Do developed countries have a moral responsibility to address the issue of hunger in the world? 25. Do democratic states have a moral right/moral obligation to overthrow/help overthrow dictatorship/eliminate oppression in some ...
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Click To Tweet. I've listed 70 argumentative essay topics below, phrased as questions, to help get you started. I've separated the topics into five categories—legal, moral, social, media, and family. And I've even included a helpful link for each topic. Feel free to use the topics for your own essay or as inspiration to create your own ...
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180 Ethics Topics & Ethical Questions to Debate

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12 Interesting Ethical Topics for Essay Papers

Should Teens Have Plastic Surgery?

Would You Tell If You Saw a Popular Kid Bullying?

Would You Speak Up If Your Friend Abused an Animal?

Would You Tell If You Saw a Friend Cheating on a Test?

Should News Stories Slant Toward What People Want to Hear?

Would You Tell If Your Best Friend Had a Drink at the Prom?

Should Football Coaches Be Paid More Than Professors?

Should Politics and Church Be Separate?

Would You Speak Up If You Heard an Ugly Ethnic Statement at a Party Filled With Popular Kids?

Should Assisted Suicides Be Allowed for Terminally Ill Patients?

Should a Student's Ethnicity Be a Consideration for College Acceptance?

Should Companies Gather Information About Their Customers?

How to Write an Ethics Paper: Guide & Ethical Essay Examples

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