What qualifies as an ethical dilemma? How serious does a problem need to be to prevail as a dilemma? What or who matters when in regard to ethics? Well, all of these questions seem to have clear answers. In fact, the majority of people will insist that any dilemma that has anything to do with making a decision that would affect other people or their own lives, is an ethical dilemma worthy of being considered. However, would those same people agree that a dilemma concerning the safety of dogs or cats worthy of attention? Perhaps, they would. What about when it comes to a bug, like a spider or an ant? Some people do not care for those bugs and will kill any in sight. However, there are the few that will take the time to help the bug to safety.
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The basement is separated into two parts. One a living area, where I sleep and hang out, and the other side is a laundry room. As I walked down the stairs, to my surprise, I noticed a cockroach on my side of the basement. This is an unusual occurrence. Occasionally, I see a single cockroach hanging out on the laundry room wall, especially on a rainy night. I tend to just let them be and it will usually go back outside when the weather is better. However, this was different. The cockroach somehow managed to travel all the way from the laundry room to my side of the basement. Chickenhearted am I when it comes to bugs. Like the enormous population of girls, with the exception of the few audacious ones, I can’t even kill a spider, let alone a cockroach. What was I supposed to do? I went for a jar. Very slowly, I crept up to it, making sure not to startle it, and in an instant, I plunged the jar on top of it. When the cockroach realized what happened, it began to scramble. It ran circles around the circumference of the jar and tried to climb up the jar, but there was no escape for that little …show more content…
All of these thoughts are a part of the rights approach. I did not think it would be fair for me to let the thing die because I believed that it, like me should have the right to live. The cockroach had a right “to be treated as an ends and not merely as means to other ends” (276). The main goal of the situation was to get the cockroach out of my room. That was my ends. This could have been accomplished in many ways. But looking at the cockroach as its own ends, the only possible solution was one that would give the cockroach a right to live. From a teleological standpoint, leaving the cockroach in the jar, might have been a good solution. Perhaps the cockroach enjoyed it in the warm house protected by a jar. If I had been able to communicate with it, I may have taken this approach. However, I could not converse with it, so my decision was based on a deontological approach. Because the deontological theories are “duty based,” and humans are obligated to do “certain acts in order to uphold a rule or law” (281). The rule I was obligated to fulfill was “do no harm,” and “do not kill.” Therefore, because it inconvenienced me, and quite possibly the cockroach, I let it back out into the wilderness. Thinking ethically, I believe I did the right thing. Through these approaches, I can see that there were a lot of different ways I
The basement is separated into two parts. One a living area, where I sleep and hang out, and the other side is a laundry room. As I walked down the stairs, to my surprise, I noticed a cockroach on my side of the basement. This is an unusual occurrence. Occasionally, I see a single cockroach hanging out on the laundry room wall, especially on a rainy night. I tend to just let them be and it will usually go back outside when the weather is better. However, this was different. The cockroach somehow managed to travel all the way from the laundry room to my side of the basement. Chickenhearted am I when it comes to bugs. Like the enormous population of girls, with the exception of the few audacious ones, I can’t even kill a spider, let alone a cockroach. What was I supposed to do? I went for a jar. Very slowly, I crept up to it, making sure not to startle it, and in an instant, I plunged the jar on top of it. When the cockroach realized what happened, it began to scramble. It ran circles around the circumference of the jar and tried to climb up the jar, but there was no escape for that little …show more content…
All of these thoughts are a part of the rights approach. I did not think it would be fair for me to let the thing die because I believed that it, like me should have the right to live. The cockroach had a right “to be treated as an ends and not merely as means to other ends” (276). The main goal of the situation was to get the cockroach out of my room. That was my ends. This could have been accomplished in many ways. But looking at the cockroach as its own ends, the only possible solution was one that would give the cockroach a right to live. From a teleological standpoint, leaving the cockroach in the jar, might have been a good solution. Perhaps the cockroach enjoyed it in the warm house protected by a jar. If I had been able to communicate with it, I may have taken this approach. However, I could not converse with it, so my decision was based on a deontological approach. Because the deontological theories are “duty based,” and humans are obligated to do “certain acts in order to uphold a rule or law” (281). The rule I was obligated to fulfill was “do no harm,” and “do not kill.” Therefore, because it inconvenienced me, and quite possibly the cockroach, I let it back out into the wilderness. Thinking ethically, I believe I did the right thing. Through these approaches, I can see that there were a lot of different ways I