cgs1246
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Registered: 03-2005
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Ethical Inconsistency
We have an Ethics committee at our institution. We mostly struggle with end of life issues. We work on the premise that life is precious and should be protected at all times, but then stumble knowing what to do when there is no mind left, only vital signs and a ventilator. We stumble when there is a life near end with incurable cancer. We are aware that death is sometimes better than prolonged suffering, but often find it difficult to know when that point has been reached. Eventually each of us finds ourselves placing ourselves in that person's shoes. Only then do we as a body discover what is right to do. Empathy is our only true guide to determining what is ethical.
That may be the only immutable aspect of ethics. Everything else changes. What is moral in one society is often immoral in another society. What was moral last century may now be immoral in that same society. What was immoral last century is now moral. No society stays static. Every society evolves. All morality systems evolve with that society.
Morals and ethics do not come from some supreme creator-manipulator in the sky, do not come from the Old Testament Bible, and do not come from governmental decrees. They come from us. It is up to us to find in our hearts those ethics which are the most empathetic towards the suffering in our society.
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3/29/2005, 9:33 pm
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