Several Ways to View Cohens Actions in the Context of Carters Test - Research Paper Example

Carter talks about integrity in terms of a series of steps. The first step is the discernment of what is wrong from what is right. The second step involves acting on the basis of that discernment, and consistent with the discernment, regardless basically of consequences, and this means even if the action results in personal discomfort, pain, and loss. The third step is the public announcement that one intends to act, or is acting, based on the results of the discernment process, having figured out what is wrong from what is right for certain a certain situation or context. This paper examines whether Cohen’s actions in her essay passes the three-step test for integrity prescribed by Carter, and argues that in fact, by discerning that egg donation is wrong, and by acting on that discernment and making it known through her published piece that he intends to shun egg donation, that he passes Carter’s integrity test (Cohen; Carter). First it is important to note that Carter differentiates between honesty and integrity. One can say with little argument that Cohen was being honest, by writing about her thoughts in such a public way, about her experiences dealing with a couple who was looking for an egg donor for financial considerations, and to whose ad she responded. She was forthright in saying what she thought eventually of the whole thing. On the other hand, Carter says that integrity is more than just honesty. As embodied in his three steps, first there has to be discernment. Second, a person of integrity has to have the courage to act on what he or she has discerned. A person for instance may be against slavery, but unless that person also acts to end slavery, or free slaves, then that person has no integrity, even if he or she professes with honesty that he or she is against slavery. There has to be the three elements or three steps present to be able to say that a person has integrity. Say Cohen is honest, and the article seems very honest, but that does not necessarily make Cohen a person of integrity by the standards of Carter (Carter; Cohen). So if Cohen was not a person of integrity for being honest about her thoughts and feelings about being an egg donor to a couple, then more must be done to examine whether in effect Cohen followed the three steps that Carter prescribed in his text on integrity. Looking at Cohen’s piece, one gets the sense that at the end she made a decision not be part of the whole thing. But then again towards the end the decision was made for her too. She was rejected by the wife as an egg donor for being “ho-hum” so to speak when it comes to her appearance physically. In effect she was dumped and was not made to decide for herself whether or not to act on her discernment. There was discernment, yes, that the whole exercise was wrong, and he did go through that step. Therefore, partially, one can say that Cohen was able to make it through the first step of Carter’s three-step integrity test. One can say moreover that the piece, publicly made available, is a further testament to the fact that he made a decision on the ethics of egg donation after a discernment process entailing going through the application process for egg donation. On the other hand, she did not decide actively to spurn the whole process, and she was passively booted out of the running so to speak. So in terms of Carter’s three steps, Cohen can be said to not have made the grade in terms of actively spurning the whole donation and interview process altogether. By not actively doing something to go against what she thought was wrong, one can say that Cohen failed the second step in Carter’s three-step process for vetting the integrity of a person (Cohen; Carter). On the other hand, there is a way to view her writing the piece and getting it published that seems to say that in a way she has staked her reputation on what she believed to be wrong, after the discernment process. By going public about her views on egg donation in the way that she did, was she not doing something about her discernment in an active way too, on pain of personal loss? The loss and risk here is that she risks standing out and not conforming to what society wants. She risks alienation. From this perspective she is acting on her discernment, and publicly saying that she is acting on that discernment too. Yes she did not back out of the application and had that course of action taken away from her before she could do something about her discernment, true. She was eliminated from the candidate pool. On the other hand, were not her actions, which centered on writing the piece and having it considered for publishing, acting in the manner that Carter described for step two of his three step process? One can argue that this is the case. One can argue further that the piece is moreover a public declaration against egg donation, and a public declaration that in fact she intends to stay away from activities relating to egg donation, foremost being taking her eggs out of that whole market altogether. Viewed from this context one can make an argument that in fact Cohen has gone through all the three steps of Carter’s three-step integrity process. This being so, one can argue that Cohen has become a person of integrity by writing the piece, having it published, and supposedly standing up to what she had written down and staying away from the egg donation market moving forward (Cohen; Carter). To conclude, there are several ways to view Cohen’s actions in the context of Carter’s test for integrity. In a way she has failed to complete the steps, by not explicitly leaving the interview process when she could. On the other hand, by writing the piece and having it published, after discerning that egg donation was wrong, one can also argue that she undertook all three steps of Carter’s integrity test (Cohen; Carter), Works Cited Carter, Stephen. “The Rules about the Rules”. 2008. Web. 1 November 2014. Cohen, Jessica. “Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman’s Eggs”. The Atlantic. December 2002. Web. 1November 2014. Read More