Ethical Dilemmas
Up to now we have been concerned with the notion
of ethical theory—how we conduct ourselves as individuals
and as a community in order to live a good and moral life. However, this ethical theory represents
only half of the school of philosophy we recognize
as ethics. At some point, these theories have to
be put into practice, and we then move into the area
of a pplied ethics.
Th e basic assumption of ethical theory is that you
as an individual or community are in control of all
the factors that infl uence the choices that you make.
In reality, your ethical principles are most likely to be
tested when you face a situation in which there is no
obvious right or wrong decision but rather a right or
right answer. Such situations are referred to as ethical
dilemmas.
As we saw earlier in our review of value systems
and value conflicts, any idealized set of principles or
standards inevitably faces some form of challenge.
For ethical theories, that challenge takes the form of