Ethics - Duty - Emotions
The situation is between father and son. Suppose if you are a police officer (father) and your son committed a crime, you had two choices. One is to turn in your son because it is the ‘RIGHT’ thing to do and the other is to protect your son by doing the ‘DUTY’ of the father towards a son. What is the more ethical thing to do? Discuss the duty ethics VS. right space theories with the situation in mind. Which one does the good outweigh the bad in either of them?
This post was prepared by Kunal Shah and he is the leader for this topic. This blogging was started on 5th Saturday and will be end on midnight of 14th Monday.
I answer to this is it all depends on the situation. Personally, it would be the most difficult to turn in my son for anything, regardless of the crime. According to duty ethics, it would be my duty to protect my son. According to Rights Theory, the right thing to do would be to turn my son in. If I had to choose, I would turn him in and try to fight for him to my best. The reason I would do that is because then I would be following both theories of ethics. It also depends on the crime. If it is something as serious as murder, then it would be hard to fight for him. If it was smaller, I would support him throughout and help him in any way. Even after all this, my first instinct would be to follow the duty ethics theory before anything else.
Kunal, your instincts are correct even though you are not a parent. As a parent myself, I believe it is your “duty” to love unconditionally, but also your first move is going to want to try and settle the situation internally without the authorities no matter the nature of the crime. It will most likely be, only when the crime conflicts with your faith to a degree that you could not live with yourself by ignoring such a crime. No matter who your are, everyone I would say, has an order of degree of “sins” or crimes. We do not tend to think a thief in the same manner as a murderer. So, it will be when the degree of crime reaches above the level you can handle. And only then will a parent want to turn their child in. Even though it is not the “right” thing to do by enabling what you believe to be the lesser crime.
Some parents will say that “I would turn them in, if I don’t they will not learn anything. They must accept responsibility for their actions. Period.” The fact is, most parents want to accept the responsibility for their childs actions. Parents feel guilty, as parents, when their child does something wrong, because it reflects on them, even if they do not deserve the guilt. In some cases, a parent does deserve it. But I am a firm believer that there is still more good parenting out there than bad. “Bad” today is only magnified because that is what the media wants us to believe. It makes for good reporting. The very fact that reporting “bad” issues is big in this country, should tell you that there is more good than bad, because what makes “bad” stories interesting, is the disbelief of the people who watch it.
Scott, I am not sure if it is true that a father will unconditionally protect his son from breaking the law no matter the nature of the crime. What if the crime is a murder? Which is taking someone life in unlawfully, this a crime against all laws and faiths. I think murder is a crime that no one good or bad dad will sleep over it easy
Frank Holcomb
As a police officer you would have a sworn duty to up hold the law. If your child had done something illegel then I would advise him to turn himself in to take reponsibility for his actions. I would tell him that I loved him and would help him all I could as he is my child and I have unconditional love for that child. Yet that does not make it ok for him to commit crimes that can jeordize his freedom or my carrer. I would not turn him in that would be his own decision and between him and the legal system with juristiction over the alleged crime. If the crime were violent in nature and he posed a threat to society at large then I would contact the authorites with juristiction and help him turn himself in before anybody else gets hurt. If he totoaly refused that would be the only time I would consider making that call for his and the public safety.
It really depends on the nature of the crime. If it’s a serious enough offense, then I would definitely hand him over to the authorities for punishment. If it wasn’t that serious, and the authorities would go rather lax on him in the long run, then I would handle the punishment myself.
I agree with everyone before; parents fail at their job if they don’t teach their children right and wrong. A big part of teaching them is having them learn the repercussions realized from doing the wrong thing. Furthermore, if I feel confident that I have been clear and strong in my methods of teaching the child, then I would not begin to bail him out of prison or help him in any way. He was wrong in committing the crime and must face everything that comes with it.
I agree with you Adrian, but could you really just leave your son to the dumps regardless of the crime he committed. If you can, I really admire that of you because it really takes a big heart to do so.
Agree it is the parent responsibility to teach there kids right and wrong. But shouldn’t that stop them from doing any crime. Why when you teach your son what right as a good parent but they still commit a crime?
Unfortunately, children can reject that which they are taught. Despite your best efforts, you can’t force a child to behave in a particular manner; you can just engender within them a sense of right and wrong as well as a respect for and a sense of duty to order.
The parents “duty” is to protect his son. The “right” thing to do would be to turn the son over to the police for prosecution. The father(police officer himself) also has a duty to his position to enforce the law. I personally would turn my son in, in fact this is fulfilling my duty as a parent. Having him realize the consequences of breaking the law, should protect him in the future, by preventing any furthur misconduct. In my mind this is clear cut decision, I am curious to see some of the other opinions.
I really like your answer Chuck. I like the point you made about honesty and following the law, by turning in your son. Still, as a parent I would still be too emotional to turn him in. I don’t know, some of you folks may know better because you guys are actually parents.
I agree our duty is to follow the law, but does the crime type or size matter to you?
I agree that it is the fathers duty to teach the child right from wrong. I would as I said in my previous post discipline the child in the confines of my own home and warn him of the implications of his actions if they were reported to the law. I would punish him however I saw fit depending on the severity of the misconduct. This would be the only warning that he would receive. After that he is on his own and if he chooses to break the law again I would go through the proper channels and he would be turned in. I think this would hopefully like you said prevent any other bad behavior and make him into a better person.
I would turn my son in, because that is the right thing to do. If I just bail my son out, that doesn’t help him learn. I am not really “helping” him if I were to just bail him out. If I were to bail him out and if he got in trouble again, then he would probably expect me to bail him about a 2nd time. Even though he is my son and I love him, he must learn his lesson.
Adam, do you think that turn your son in is the only way to make him learn his lesson?
On one hand you hate to give your son the idea that since his father is a cop he can do whatever he wants and get away with it, but intentionally giving your son a criminal record can potentially cause major problems later in his life. Obviously you have responsibilities in both directions. I think the answer depends on the specific crime that was committed by your son. If someone else is affected by the crime then the situation should be rectified to please that person. That could potentially be handled outside of the legal system. Something could be worked out with the victim to allow your son to work off the crime without going through the court system, which would probably end up costing both you and the victim unnecessary money. It becomes unethical if there is a victim that has incurrred some sort of loss due to the crime and the police officer covers it up because it was his son that commited the crime. If it is a victimless crime then it is both easier and probably more effective for you to handle the punishment on a personal level, father to son, than to go through the legal processes. I don’t think that anyone would fault a father for giving their son special treatment in any case. As a parent, it is up to you to decide what the best course of action is regarding you own child and their punishment. However, you still have the duty to consider the innocent victims, especially as a sworn officer of the law.
Cade, I like your answer on how to handle it out of the court depends on the situation and the crime. As long you satisfy who was affected with the crime and the son was bunched and learned his mistake