Saturday, October 30, 2010

Can Ethics be taught?

Can ethics be taught? A recent interaction with a member of the younger generation left me at first shocked and then later, thoughtful. A discussion in a group activity was centred on where a professional should draw the ethical line.
“Should you defend a man who you know is a criminal in cold blood?” I asked a young lawyer.
“Yes, why not?”, was his prompt reply.
I tightened the question further and asked, “What if in this case an innocent person would go the gallows?”
He was OK with that too.
By now the rest of the group was beginning to go silent.
I took the issue further and asked, “What if this innocent man was your brother?”
The young lawyer did not reply immediately. He seemed to weigh the options. As he paused the group seemed to gasp. He needed to actually think over it. And then he replied.
He said, “Yes”.
“Yes”, he said, qualifying it further by adding, “Yes, if it means power and money.”
The rest of the people in the room seemed to have gone cold as a frosty silence enveloped them.
I now asked him to switch roles.
What if you were a patient with a terminal illness and half a dozen doctors had given up on you? What if this seventh doctor said he could help you? And you found out that it was just a racket. There was no chance for you to survive. Is this doctor justified in taking advantage of the situation and putting you through the trauma while making you pay large sums as fees?
This time his answer was as prompt but in negative.
“The doctor cannot do such a thing!” he exclaimed.
“Why?” I queried.
“This is unethical,” he said.