Morality and Moral theories

Dr Nakwagala Frederick Nelson

Senior Consultant Physician
30th August 2017
 Ethics
• Refers to moral theory and values as they apply
to complex aspects of life.
• Ethics is a generic term for various ways to
understanding and examining the moral life
• It includes moral ideals that individuals and
groups voluntarily accept
• Ideally each profession has guiding principles for
ethical practice.

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 What is Bio-ethics
• The study and application of moral principles as
they relate to the life sciences.
– Human health and research involving humans
– Animal, whether higher or lower ones
– Plants
– Environmental issues as they concern the biosphere
– Certain aspects of politics, media, entertainment,
trade, sports and crime as they relate to how humans
rationale think about right and wrong behaviour that
pertains to health and research.
– Ideas about the whole essence of being, the purposes
of being humans, and relating as humans.
 Morality 1
• Morality refers to norms about right and
wrong human conduct that are so widely
shared that they form a stable (although
usually incomplete) social consensus
• It gives guidance on how people reason
rationale to solve life's complex issues
• In understanding moral life, we explore
the values and preferences of the different
individuals
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 Morality 2
• This appreciation of our individual differences
enables us to accommodate and tolerate the
different beliefs and practices that may not be
applicable to us
• If we respect other people’s choices, we are
respecting others’ rights.
• Hence tolerance is one of post modern era
greatest values
 Moral values
• Morality is value based.
• Over time societies develop values that they
use to guide their behaviour, attitudes and
choices.
• Moral values may not be written down but are
generally accepted and practiced in all walks
of life.
• Moral agents are the actors who implement
moral values.
 Moral theories 1

• Utilitarianism (Stuart Mill}

– assessment of the greatest good in terms of the
total intrinsic value produced by an action
• The end justifies the means
• The greatest good for the greatest many
• Also called Consequentialism

• Deontology (Emmanuel Kant)

– An act is deemed right to be done if the doer is
willing that it becomes a universally accepted
norm applying even to him/herself 7
 Kant's Categorical imperative
• Act in such a away that you intent to make
that act a universal principle.

• People should not be used a s mere means to

an end but as an end in itself.
 Moral theories 2
• Liberal individualism
– All individuals are born with inalienable rights
– It s a dominant theory of post modern era
– It is generally agreed that rights have limits or are
not absolute

• Principlism
There are four cardinal principles of Autonomy,
Beneficence, Non-Maleficience and Justice
 Moral theories 3
• Casuistry
– describes case based approaches to the
interpretation of moral dilemmas.
– As used in Law it uses precedents to judge future
cases.
– Ethics is a highly case based discipline.
 Moral theories 4
• Communitarianism
– focuses on communal values, the common good,
social goals, traditional practices and cooperative
virtues
– Dominant moral philosophy in Africa and Asia and
South America.
– It relegates individual liberties to collective
identity and value systems.
– Rights of minorities may be overridden
 Moral theories 5
• Ethics of care/feminism; care for emotional
commitment to, and willingness to act on
behalf of persons with whom one has a
significant relationship
– Largely embraced by the female gender
– It is distinct from femininism
Virtue ethics (Aristotle)
– describes values such as compassion, mercy,
courage, truthfulness, kindness and empathy
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 Pragmatism
• This theory accepts right or wrong choices
depending on whether it is pragmatically
feasible or not
– Sometimes called ethical realism.
– E.g. is it ethical to harvest organs from dying
death row inmates?
 The great grandfather of
medical ethics:
• Hippocrates
• 460 years before Christ
• The Hippocratic Oath

“Primum non nocere, in dubio abstine”

“First, do no harm, when in doubt abstain”
 Limitations of moral theories
• They constantly are in opposition to each
other.

• They cant be absolute e.g your freedom starts

where harm to others starts

• They evolve with time and may be non-

appealing in the long run
 Limitations of moral theories 2
• They are subject to interpretations and
different weighing systems.

• They are context specific and hence may not

work in other places or times.
 Conclusions
• Moral theories are a necessary ingredient of
any attempt to understand human life
especially in relation to critical thinking
whenever in dilemmatic situations.