ETHICS Vs.
MORALITY  Morality is followed because a person
 The word Ethics originated from the
Greek word ethos. The meaning of
ethos is a character.
 Legal guidelines and professional rules
govern ethics. The acceptability of
ethics is confined within a particular
space and time frame.
 Ethics are dependent on the prism of
others.
 If the contexts are different, then the
ethics could be different. Hence there is
some degree of flexibility in ethics.
 Ethics are followed because society has
decided it is the right course of action.
 A person who follows the ethical
principles need not necessarily have
strong moral values, in fact, there are
even possibilities that he may not have
any morals
 Ethics is something usually associated in
the field of law, medicine or business.
Ethics does not have a religious
connotation.
 The word Morals originated from the
Latin word Mos. The meaning of Mos is
custom.
 When it comes to the acceptability of
morality it transcends the norms laid
down by culture.
 Morality is seen from the perspective of
an individual.
 Change in morality depends on the
difference in the beliefs of an individual.
 Morality is followed because a person
believes that it is the right course of
action.
believes that it is the right course of
action.
 Morality has a religious connotation.
ETHICS
4 Major areas of study
1. Descriptive ethics
– this is the division of
philosophical or general ethics
that involves the observation of
the moral decisionmaking
process with the goal of
describing the phenomenon.
- Describe th nature,essence or
substance of reality.
- Reports what people believe,hiw
they reason and how they act.
2. Normative Philosophy
- concerned with criteria of what is
morally right and wrong.
- It includes the formulation of moral
rules that have direct implications
for what human actions,
institutions, and ways of life should
be like
- 3 types of normative theories:
• virtue theories, deontological
(moral obligation) theories, and
teleological theories.
VIRTUE-BASED THEORY
 Virtue based theories focus on the
character of the person.
 According to virtue based theories, ethics is
about what sort of person one should strive
to become.
 The qualities that one should develop in
oneself are called virtues (ex. honesty,
 fairness, kindness, faithfulness, generosity,
prudence, integrity, bravery, etc.).
For example:
• Aristotle claimed that in order to become an
honest person, one should tell the truth.
(Aristotle) Eventually it becomes a habit.
• One learns how to tell the truth
appropriately, without being brutally honest all
of the time or lying whenever it is easier to do
so.
• It is a learning process that continues
throughout your life.
DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY
 This type of theory claims that there are
features within the actions themselves
which determine whether or not they
are right.
 These features define the extent to
which the actions conform with
recognized moral duties
 Deontological theories do not consider
consequences to be important when
determining whether or not an action is
ethical .
– It doesn’t matter if the drunk driver
made it home safely.
• Immanuel Kant's ethical theory is
deontological.
–He claims that actions are only morally
right when they are done out of duty.
–He sees moral duties as unchanging
laws for human conduct.
– Always act out of duty, in accordance
with a good will
• I.e. One does the right thing because
one recognizes that it is the right thing
to do, not because it pleases you to do it
or will promote good consequences.).
TELEOLOGICAL THEORY
• This describes an ethical theory which
judges the rightness of an action in
terms of an external goal or purpose.
• According to a teleological theory,
consequences always play some part, be
it small or large, in the determination of
what one should or should not do.
• Theory of morality that derives duty or
moral obligation from what is good or
desirable as an end to be achieved.
3. Practical Philosophy
- A division in philosophy which
reflects on truth with due recourse
of action.
- the attempt to work out the
implications of general theories for
specific forms of conduct and moral
judgment; formerly called applied
ethics.
4. Critical Philosophy (Epistemology)
– is the study of the nature and scope of
knowledge and justified belief.
– It analyzes the nature of knowledge
and how it relates to similar notions such
as truth, belief and justification.
– asks questions like: "What is
knowledge?", "How is knowledge
acquired?", "What do people know?",
"What are the necessary and sufficient
conditions of knowledge?"
 Postulates in Ethics
(Presumed to be true)
(1) The existence of God.
(2) The existence of intellect and
free will.
(3) The spirituality and immortality
of the human soul.
Moral Assumptions
(1) As a rational and free grade of animal,
man knows that there are actions that
are right or wrong, and good or bad.
(2) Man knows that there are actions that
he is not obliged to do.
(3) Man knows that there are actions that
he is not obliged to do.
(4) Man knows that those actions are
considered wrong are punishable and
that those actions that are right are
rewardable.
Humans: The Sole Moral Agents
• It is their being rational that makes
humans humans.
• The human person’s perceptual
knowledge helps him/her draw judgements
as he/she compares ideas.
• The human person, therefore, does not
just perceive things but also analyzes,
assesses, criticizes, or intellectualizing
things
Intellect Compared with Will
• What does intellect do?
– It knows.
–Acts as the thinking faculty of the human
person.
–Enables him/her to search for truth
• What about the will?
– It chooses.
– It implements what it has chosen.
–Enables him/her to choose which is good.
Concrete Basis of Morality
• Morality becomes vivid when one encounters
a moral experience.
• This moral experience leads him/her to a
moral problem.
• The human person is duty-bound to face
his/her obligation.
Ex.
• Morality becomes vivid when one encounters
a moral experience.
• This moral experience leads him/her to a
moral problem
. • The human person is duty-bound to face
his/her obligation.
BIOLOGY
 Natural science that deals with the issue of
life
 Important in bioethics because it deals with
the multifarious (DIVERSE) dimensions and
domains of all life forms.
BIOETHICS
 This term was introduced by DANIEL
CALLAHAN in 1969, together with
WILLARD GAYLIN when they founded
the HASTINGS CENTER/Institute of
Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences—
located in the village of Hastings-on-
Hudson, just north of New York City—
took the lead in setting the direction,
methods, and intellectual standards of
bioethics through its own journal, the
Hastings Center Report (Callahan 1971,
1973).
 Popularized by VAN RENSSELAER
POTTER in 1970
 A discipline that deals with the ethical
implications of biological research.
 The study of ethical issues that
emanate from the changes and
developments in the life science
technologies.
 A branch of ethics that deals with the
life sciences and their impact in society.
 A branch of ethics that analyzes moral
values in the context of biomedical
sciences.
 A discipline that deals with the ethical
implications of biological research.
 The study of ethical issues that
emanate from the changes and
developments in the life science
technologies.
 A branch of ethics that deals with the
life sciences and their impact in society.
 A branch of ethics that analyzes moral
values in the context o
 A branch of the ethics of biological
science and medicine.
 A systematic study of the human
conduct in the areas of the life sciences
and healthcare.
RONALD A. SABERON
 It belongs to the auspices of medical
ethics and is loosely anchored in the
avenues of life sciences.
 The study of the moral problems in
medicine and biological technology.
PREVAILING ISSUES SURROUNDING
THE AUSPICES OF BIOETHICS:
❑ Human life
❑ Health
❑ Research
❑ Science
❑ Technology
❑ Philosophy, theology, law and medicine
HEALTHCARE ETHICS
❑ A domain in the practice of the
healthcare profession that sets the
standards or guidelines relative to studies,
inquiries, and decisions on the part of
healthcare professionals in relation to the
delivery of healthcare.
❑ Deals with ethical issues such as:
lifesupport system, testing of diseases,
access to healthcare services, brain death,
clinical death, suicide, euthanasia, vices and
virtues, conscience and law.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
❑ The normative moral system that
injuncts a kind of behavior that is expected
of a professional.
❑ NOT ONLY OF AN INDIVIDUAL BUT ALSO
AS A GROUP.
BSN-2M