Ethically wrong to do right?

[JulySheMustFly]

Can y ou think of a time where it woud be ethically wrong to do the right thing? The border crossers/water and prostetute/condoms thread got me thinking abou this.

 

[Thirst_For_Knowledge]

Can y ou think of a time where it woud be ethically wrong to do the right thing? The border crossers/water and prostetute/condoms thread got me thinking abou this.

I can think of one. If you are someone's lawyer, who is obviously guilty, I think that it would be ethically wrong to help him get put in jail, though I think it may be the right thing.

 

[Merlin]

Can y ou think of a time where it woud be ethically wrong to do the right thing? The border crossers/water and prostetute/condoms thread got me thinking abou this.

There are many times for me.
I work as a 'healer'
Many times chronic illness is caused by a person's choices in life.
I could change them by changing their thought processes thus allowing them to heal (right thing? ),
But that would interfere with their own free will (ethically wrong).

So, all I can do is advise them and sometimes watch them suffer.

 

[JulySheMustFly]

Merlin-
what do you mean as a 'healer'?

 

[Merlin]

Merlin-
what do you mean as a 'healer'?

I make my living 'rewiring' neuro-synaptic pathways in order to bring about healing in people.

Since I make my living helping people heal, I call myself a 'healer' (professionally) just as a doctor might be considered a healer.

I don't mean I have 'powers of healing' or some such thing.

 

[Nienor]

IF you were in Nazi Germany and had Jews hiding in your basement and Nazis asked if you knew where any were hiding and you said yes. You would be telling the truth, but condemning them to the Concentration Camps

 

[luvmyhubby]

I guess it depends on whose ethics you are following. A friend of mine is a healthcare worker. She babysits for a family that takes in foster children. One of the infants was a little boy whose mother was HIV positive. Social Services failed to mention that to the family. When my friend learned who the mother was, she wasn't sure what to do. Ethically she was bound by confidentiality laws. Morally she knew that there was a chance this infant was also HIV positive, and changing dirty diapers without gloves posed a risk for the foster parents. So she was caught - she had a moral obligation to inform the foster parents (who also had 5 kids of their own) but an ethical obligation to keep her mouth shut. What she ended up doing was talking to the pediatrician, who worked in the same practice as the doctor the mother went to, and the pediatrician took it from there. It's a tough situation when you know something is the right thing to do but you have an ethical obligation not to do it.

 

[Abbadon]

(This gag's going to get old if I use it too much, but it works here...)You know, I once read about a guy that said it wasn't really so much about ethics, but about morals, and they nailed Him to a cross.

 

[""]

In my line of work, ethics are very important. I see patients who have diseases that they prefer be kept secret, so as not to cost them a job, friends, family members etc. There are instances where my ethical responsibility is to keep the patients right to privacy at the top of the stack, and a family member's desire to learn of their loved one's health problems beneath it. That can be really difficult, because I feel it is right for the family member to know that their loved one (the patient) is suffering from a devastating illness, but then again, it is not my right to tell them.

 

[DailyBlessings]

Can y ou think of a time where it woud be ethically wrong to do the right thing?

Sure. Ethics are highly situational.
For instance, if Walmart started giving away it's food to the hungry, it would be morally right for we are called to help those less fortunate than ourselves. But it would be ethically wrong because millions of workers and the American economy depend on Walmart's ability to return consistently larger profits. Now I think moral action is more important, but corporations clearly do not.

 

[kopilo]

The main time I see when it is ethically wrong "to do right", is when your morals go against societies ethics.. eg you may believe eye for eye justice to be morally right in a country which sees eye for eye justice as ethically wrong.

 

[jayem]

The problem of the moral dilemma has been around forever. Socrates posed the case of a man who entrusts his sword to the care of a friend. The friend promises to return it when the man asks. The friend then learns that the man intends to use the sword to kill a rival. If he keeps his word and returns the sword, then he abets someone's death.


All these situations show that moral absolutes may exist in theory, but may not always be valid in practice. Circumstances might arise where one might have to commit a moral "wrong," in order to prevent or mitigate a greater wrong.

 

[sethad]

Can y ou think of a time where it woud be ethically wrong to do the right thing? The border crossers/water and prostetute/condoms thread got me thinking abou this.

Of course.

Killing someone to protect yourself and your family.

You and your family were starving so you stole some food

etc

 

[MoonlessNight]

I'm not quite sure how you mean the word "ethically."

 

[sethad]

I'm not quite sure how you mean the word "ethically."

Ethical:
adj.

1. Of, relating to, or dealing with ethics.
2. Being in accordance with the accepted principles of right and wrong that govern the conduct of a profession. See Synonyms at moral.
3. Of or relating to a drug dispensed solely on the prescription of a physician.

Ethic:

eth·ic (

th

k)
n.

1. 1. <LI type=a>A set of principles of right conduct.
   2. A theory or a system of moral values: “An ethic of service is at war with a craving for gain” (Gregg Easterbrook).
2. ethics. (used with a sing. verb)The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy.
3. ethics. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession: medical ethics.

Dictionaries work

Basically...the question is "is it ever ok to do wrong"

 

[vajradhara]

to paraphrase a Madonna song...

i am a relative girl and i live in a relative world...

as mentioned, there are many, many cases where doing what we consdier the "right thing" is not the proper course of action. naturally, i think that humans tend towards this consideration, for the most part.

words are powerful. if they are spoken with sincerety and love, they can change our world.

metta,

~v

 

[MoonlessNight]

Basically...the question is "is it ever ok to do wrong"

Sometimes people seperate ethics and morality in weird ways. I wasn't sure what trying hard was trying to get at.

To that question I would answer that it might be permissable (or better, forgiveable or understandable) to do wrong in some cases, but it is never right.