Action to be Taken in a Specific Situation - Essay Example

Knowing and studying ethics will allow a person to understand and recognize what is the right of action to be taken in a specific situation. Every choice you make can be studied and can be labelled as ethical or unethical under specific standards and systems. Because of these systems, we tend to judge people’s conducts and actions as right or wrong. Therefore, these systems are important not only in our daily activities and decision makings, but these are also crucial for people who are involved in the criminal justice field.

To examine the different ethical systems, a scenario is given below.A team was hired to be a guide in an expedition in one of the highest mountains on earth. Near the summit, passed the mountain’s death zone, one of the clients passed out. Everyone in the team is too weak to carry the client; they are almost running out of time, and a storm is already on its way. In addition to the weak client, the most experienced leader and the weakest climber is also in their weakest state, and is already showing signs of High Altitude Cardio Edema (HACE).

The team only has one injection of Dexamethasone (Dex), which will slightly help only one of the three weak people to ease his or her pain. Each person in the team is left with one tank of oxygen, which is only good for four hours; however, the steep descend will take the team six hours. It is up to a member to decide to stay with the client or continue to descend. In the Kantian perspective or in ethical formalism, good will is the only thing that is good. Good actions done out of good will, whatever the results may be is a moral act, and whatever you do wrong, even with a good result is still not moral (Pollock, 2012).

In the scenario above, the other members must continue to descend to camp. You should stay with the client who had passed out in order to look after him or her. The Dex must also be injected to the client who had passed out because he needs it the most. In the utilitarian perspective, an act must consider the whole and not just an individual. In this system, it is allowed to harm a person or a small part of the whole for the goodness and benefit of the remaining or bigger parts (Pollock, 2012).

In the scenario above, if the utilitarianism ethics is used, the client who had passed out and the weakest climber must be left behind by the team for a lesser burden on the other members. This action will allow the others to descend faster and will also be able to maximize their oxygens. The Dex will also be injected to the most experienced leader because he or she will be very helpful in the team’s navigation to camp. In Stoicism, if you believe in something which has value to you, then it will affect your emotion and your act.

Wherein, the thought of being courageous will lead to an emotion and act that will also be courageous (Gray, 2010). In the scenario above, with the Stoicism system, you will still pursue the act of descending with the three weak people in the team. The belief of surviving and the courage of not leaving any man behind is supported by the Stoicism system. The Dex injection will be given to the client who had passed out in order for him or her to continue the descend. You will then continue to help the client and the weak team leader.

The weak member will be looked after and guided by the other members of the team. You will continuously remind yourself that everything happens for a purpose, and that the situation you are all in now is already preordained. ReferencesGray, W. G. (2010, November 11). Virtue ethics. Retrieved from http://ethicalrealism.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/virtue-ethics/Pollock, J. M. (2012). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.