Lecture 5: 7 Step Moral Reasoning Model

Scott Rae, PhD

- Formulated the 7 Step Moral Reasoning Model
- Primary interests in Medical and Business Ethics
- Infuses Christian Ethics both medicine and in the marketplace
- Formulated the model as a suggestion on how to utilize reason and impartiality in
deciding moral matters
- Most of his works:
 Analyzes the current situation in the medical field and in business settings
7 Step Reasoning Process

1. Gather the facts

a. The simplest way of clarifying an ethical dilemma is to make sure the facts are
clear
- Factual knowledge is still relevant
- Given opportunity to set things clear from the beginning
- Facts should be clear
- Necessary to determine the problem
b. You can ask the following questions for fact-checking:
 Do you have all the facts that are necessary to make a good decision?
 What do we know?
 What do we need to know?
- Do not make instant conclusion/assumptions to something that is incomplete in the first
place
o Ex. Gossip
- Explore further if facts are insufficient
c. It might become clear that the dilemma is not ethical but about
communication/strategy
- If one determines the facts, one can determine whether a problem is morally inclined
- Clearing things out
o Ex. Gossip (sometimes is a problem in communication)
- Problem about strategy – each of you gave a solution; but the problems fall over
because of unclear communication and didn’t settle things out first
o Ex. Group work
- Moral problem – morally inclined; decision that will affect others/themselves
- Not all problems are moral problems

2. Determine the ethical issues

- Look into the ethical interests
- Ethical interest
o In terms of legitimate competing interest/goods
o Competing interests creates dilemma
o Moral values and virtues should support the competing interests = existence of
ethical dilemma
o If underlying values/virtues are not identified = you do not have an ethical
dilemma
o Other people hold these positions strongly and with passion because of the
values/virtues beneath them
- 2 sides
- Ex. Land owner sees that he can build a warehouse. Property is in an environment
protected zone. If you build a warehouse in the zone without the approval of the
supervisor of the area, even though it is your land, it will compete interests with the
supervisor of the area. (Personal interest vs Others’ interest)
- Ex. Boy Scouts Hotel in Mt. Makiling

3. Identify the ethical principles that has a bearing in the situation

- In an ethical dilemma, certain values and principles are central to the competing
positions. You need to identify these.
- Identify central principles
- Ex. Forest (object of interest)
- Determine which principles should be given more weight
o Ask what the source of the principle is
 Constitution
 Culture
 Natural law
 Religious tradition
 Supplemental biblical principles
 Ex. Arguments about the SOGIE Bill
 Some arguments are too vague and some are clear
o Argument should have a sufficient info
o Principles will be your source of argument

4. List the alternative actions

- Creatively determine possible courses of action for your dilemma
- Some will most immediately be discarded
- The more you list the greater potential for coming up with a really good alternative
- Will also help come up with a broader selection of ideas
- Options are not limited to 2; infinite choices
- Ethical dilemma = long term solution
- Short term solutions lead to a recurrence of the problem
- Ex. Problem: Finding a job but with age limit/ preferred gender
 Promotes discrimination

5. Compare the alternatives to the principles listed

a. This step eliminates alternatives as they are weighed by the moral principles which
have a bearing on the case
- Certain action that doesn’t have a connection to the moral principle is removed
b. Potentially, the issue will be resolved here as all alternatives except one are
eliminated. Here, you must satisfy all the relevant virtues and values (some of the
alternatives are eliminated)
- Not all alternatives are considered
- Exclude choices which are not relevant to the topic
- Exclude if not relevant to the principles
c. Weigh principles and virtues – make sure you have a good reason for each
weighing
- In some instances, the virtues contradict or are not aligned with each other
- Take into consideration what specific virtue/principle you should uphold to get the
better outcome
- Look over each principle that is advocated and then look which is most beneficial

6. Weigh the consequences present in the actions provided

- For every action, there is a consequence
- If principles have not yielded a clear decision, consider the consequences of your
alternatives
- The person deciding is the most affected once consequences surface
- Take alternatives and work out the pros and cons of the consequences of each
alternative
- Estimate how beneficial each pro and con of the consequence since some might have
greater weight than others

7. Make a decision
- Ethical decisions rarely have pain-free solutions
- You might have to choose the solution with the least # of problems/painful
consequences
- Even when making a good decision, you might still lose sleep over it (regret)
- Least problematic choice
Notes:
1. There are additional steps in the ethical decision-making process in some iterations.
Some adapted the 7 steps; others came up with 9 steps. Some steps were stretched out
to fully encompass the process.
2. Other iterations have 7 steps, but the last step is more of a review.
 Ex. 7-Step Guide to Ethical Decision Making by Davis
3. The best way to see the differences of these would be in practical applications of the
model.

Transcribed by: Alyssa Nicole A. Vicencio

1 MT – L