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 agree with you John. As a mother of two sons, I would find it difficult to turn on of them them in for a minor infraction. In this case I would not alert the authorities. However, I would try my best to make sure that he understands what he has done is wrong and how wrong decisions not only affect you but the people around you. If it was a more serious crime such as murder, although it would be hard, I would have no choice but turn turn him in. As parents we are responsible for teaching our children lessons and instilling in them values even when it pains us to do so.
Not only does it depend on the severity of the crime, but it would aso depend on the age of the child.
Although we can say how we think we would act, you never know until you are put into the situation.
I think it depends on the so called “crime”..not all crimes are the same, therefore i don’t think that ethically they should be weighed as such. For example: Assume the son killed someone with malicious intent..obviously that’s a no brainer!…turn him in….however imagine the son assisted in a suicide for a terminally ill friend or relative..…I don’t think they’re the same….and I wouldn’t treat the “crime” as such…so ethically, I wouldn’t think it unethical if the father didn’t turn his son in.
Well Scott you make valid points for making decisions based upon age and severity of the crime. I originally thought that the “ethical” decision would be constant through time, but as Dr. Chopra brought the point up Tuesday, we change our values change therefore maybe the age differences would make our ethical decision change.
I could think of many situations when I would turn my child in and when I would not. If this was the first time that I caught the child committing a minor crime then I would not alert the authorities. I would reprimand my child in my own household and would warn him of the consequences if they committed the crime again. I do not see the advantage of turning the child in on the first offense. If I do catch him again then I would alert the authorities. Everyone must be mindful that if you do break the law, even if it is small there are consequences. I am sure that it would hurt me to see my child in a courtroom but I would hope that it would teach him a valuable lesson. I think teaching a child that actions have consequences is one of the most important lessons for a parent to teach their kids
I disagree John. The problem is, as a police officer, you also have a duty. Child or not you have a duty to enforce the law. By not turning your son in for breaking the law, you could be in fact breaking the law. It would be hard to turn your own child in but as an officer of the law, you have an obligation to uphold.
Adam and I support the same argument