Ethics: Client Representation
Ethics
Ethics is the study of the rightness or wrongness of human actions, based on what society has identified as its moral values. Individuals are expected to observe ethical standards in their daily interactions as a way of preventing conflict and maintaining peace. For this reason, philosophers have focused on developing ethical theories to guide individuals towards making moral decisions. This text assesses these theories to determine how they inform the decision-making process.
The Situation
One of your clients is accused of murdering her husband and she, as a result, faces the death penalty. An eyewitness has wrongly identified her as the killer, but she maintains that she was in an out-of-town hotel at the supposed time. However, there is no evidence of the same as she paid the hotel fee in cash, received no official receipt, did not sign the hotel register, and the clerk does not remember seeing her. You are sure that she is innocent, and the only way to get her acquitted is to forge her signature on the customer register at the hotel. Acting on instinct, you do it, and then present the register with the forged signature as evidence in court.
This text assesses how theory influenced this decision, and how it would change if different theories are considered.
Teleological Theories
These are theories that judge the rightness or wrongness of an action based on its consequences (Peterson, 2013). They two most common teleological theories are egoism and utilitarianism
i) Egoism: egoism advocates for...
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Deontological ethics are based on other theories that focus on duty and obligation. Immanuel Kant (1785) argued that an individual should "always act in such a way that you can also will that the maxim of your action become universal law" (p. v). It can be argued that Kant's arguments are echoed in a quote often attributed to Ghandi, "Be the change you want to see in the world"
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