Ethical Framework

What does it mean to be ethical? Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos. Ethics to me can be defined as always doing the right thing all the time. Everyone has their own moral principles that decide his/her behavior. Everyone is completely different in how they were raised and taught in what was right and wrong. As stated by Santa Clara University, “ethics refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves-as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals, and so on” (Santa Clara University, 2010).

A lot of people will get ethics confused with it being the same as their feelings. In fact, it is totally opposite. It is that way because when people generally get angry with something or someone, and then they will typically follow that up with doing something bad. There are certain ethics people should follow in their everyday lives. Whether you know it or not but if you drive every day, and you choose to drive the speed limit, not to commit murder or even not to rob a bank you are following the rules and regulations that were implemented by our government.

I know from a personal level about doing the right thing and being ethical when one of my friends was working a bakery. My friend left that job and took the recipe and started making her own cookies and went out on the street and sold them cookies to the bakery’s current customers and future customers. Not to mention this was the bakery’s best cookie that was voted on by its customers. Pretty soon the owner realized his sales were going down and quickly realized that it was his former employee selling his product without the benefit.

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He eventually filed a lawsuit against my friend. Now what my friend did was not only fair and right but was also considered unethical. My friend had to pay a fee back to her former boss and had to give up the recipe and not do that again. In my everyday life I choose to be ethical in everything I do. I choose to do the right things when it comes to doing something that I know I shouldn’t be doing. One thing that comes to mind of me not being ethical was when I was not of the legal age to drink alcohol. I know that I would drink occasionally when I was in high school.

I thought it was the cool thing to do and hang out with my friends while I did it. Then when I came to Brevard it got worse being around a lot of my friends that would peer pressure me. Growing up I had two great parents that taught me to always do the right thing. While doing it I knew it would be ethical to not pick a beer up and drink it seeing how the law stated that you had to be at least twenty one years of age to consume it. My parents have always told me, “Would you still do what you’re doing if I was sitting right behind you? But also on the other hand I do not consider it being unethical if I were to do something that didn’t really have that much harm, like for example lying to a friend. According to Cornell University, "Many acts that would be widely condemned as unethical are not prohibited by law” (Legal Information Institute, 1992). When deciding on what would be considered ethical and non-ethical, you would have to use your judgment of how you were raised to determine the certain actions. I know for a fact that when and if I have kids I will definitely raise them the way my grandparents and my parents have raised me. If I can do that then I will know for a fact that I will be proud of my kids, and they will be properly raised.

REFERENCES

1. Legal Information Institute. (1992). Retrieved September 9, 2012, from Cornell University Law School: http://www. law. cornell. edu/wex/ethics
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2005, December 20). Retrieved September 9, 2012, from Personal Identity and Ethics: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/identity-ethics/
3. Santa Clara University. (2010). A Framework for Thinking Critically. Retrieved September 8, 2012, from http://www. scu. edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework. html

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