Andrew Mueth:
Journal Five—Just War, Medical Ethics, and
Business Ethics
ONE:
One key idea from this section of morality is that business leaders can put
themselves first in such a way that they have to raise themselves up by pushing
down on others, and by harming others to help themselves. Alternately,
businessmen can help themselves by helping others, and form a system of
cooperation that benefits both sides, through fair transactions and trades that
make both sides happy, and by ethical treatment of customers and employees.
TWO:
First—An idea from Just War teachings was that on the complex issue of just
war, one must look at two levels: national and personal. People see innocent
people being harmed, either on a personal level, such as in a fight, or on a
national level, such as in a war. On the personal level, Jesus has called us to
be peacemakers, and to stop violence. On national level, however, many more
lives are at stake, and many more factors are involved. Just War theory applies to the
second level, and offers good assistance.
Second—An
idea from Medical Ethics is the concept of choosing between right and more
right on the issue of life support systems. Decisions about whether to put a
loved one on life support do not typically have a right and a wrong answer,
because as we know from this class, few moral dilemmas do have such a simple
solution. However, in deciding on life support systems, the distinction between
ordinary and extraordinary means is key. Ordinary measures, according to the
Catholic Church, include food and hydration, things all humans regularly put
into their bodies, and are acceptable in nearly all cases. Extraordinary means
include complex life support machines, which depending on the case, may or may
not be used, often depending on the likelihood of survival and recovery.
Third—From
Business Ethics, the idea that helping others—customers and employees—does two
positive things: it helps both the others, by increasing their contentment, and
the employer or boss because, as Jim Goodnight of SAS spoke of, “when the
employees are happy, they make the customers happy. And when the customers are
happy, they make me happy,” so it’s an upward spiral. By acting uprightly,
bosses will make many people happy, do the right thing, and often benefit from
their own deeds as well.
THREE:
This Dilbert cartoon
reminds me of how easy it is to disregard ethics in the cutthroat business
world and fail to even see your errors, like in Victor Crawford’s story.
Crawford, a tobacco lobbyist, preached for years that tobacco smoke will not
harm you; however, he failed to consider his situation enough to realize the
potential harm his words could have. Dilbert too fails to acknowledge his
errors, for business reasons.
FOUR:
My biggest question coming from this section is what is the role of business
leaders to be generous and giving, at their own detriment. The examples we saw
of kind CEO’s hurt their own salaries, but not enough to bring them down to
middle-class status. So is what they did enough? Should they give more? Less? I
think that the CEOs are not expected by any standards to give to the point that
their own initiative to achieve is diminished, because if they are require to
give too much, either by law or religion or ethical system, then they will by
human nature feel robbed of their earnings, and be less enthused to work.
However, I think it unjust to harm others in order to raise oneself up in the
business world.
FIVE: To make myself a better person from this lesson, I plan to consider the just war theory and guidelines before judging a war’s correctness. Doing this will help me make a more informed, intelligent decision by informing myself rather than going along with one group or another’s decisions, because I need to constantly strive to be a more informed citizen and a better person.