Unit 2: Common Ethical Issues

Question 1

Ethics Defined

Answer 1

Ethics reflects beliefs about what is right, what is wrong, what is just, what is unjust, what is good, and what is bad in terms of human behavior. It directs how people should behave toward each other, what people should understand about each other, and how people can fulfill their obligations to society and live their lives.2

Question 2

Legal versus Ethical

Answer 2

However, law is neither perfect nor all encompassing. Sometimes, personal societal ethics fills the voids that laws leave behind. Other times, usually when societal ethics has been systematically violated by a group of the population, laws are written that are designed to require individuals to live up to certain ethical standards.3

Question 3

3 conflicts

Answer 3

legal-ethical versus legal-unethical versus illegal-ethical conflicts.

Question 4

A judge believes that the use of cannabis should never be allowed regardless of the situation due to personal principles of what is right and wrong. A law was recently passed, however, allowing individuals to use cannabis.
Which type of issue does the judge face?
Illegal-ethical

Legal-unethical

Values-morals

Immoral-illegal

Answer 4

Legal-unethical

Question 5

Personal Code of Ethics

Answer 5

guide interactions with others, both personally and professionally. Ethics requires people to treat others as they expect to be treated and bring no harm to others.