Ethical dilemmas and decision-making frameworks

Ethical Dilemma

John Edwards has the dubious distinction of perhaps being the most unethical presidential candidate ever. Edwards was forced to finally admit an affair with a woman named Rielle Hunter after he had denied the affair for months during his presidential campaign. While his adultery at a time when his wife Elizabeth was stricken with cancer is bad enough, the situation surrounding political actions committee funds paid to Hunter and the misuse of additional funds in an attempted cover up of fathering Hunter's child are inexcusable.

Edwards met Hunter in 2006 and his political action committee paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience (Schwartz, Ross, and Francescani, 2008). Also, according to these authors, Hunter traveled around the United States and to Africa with Edwards to film the videos as part of the "job." However, Edwards contends that his affair began only after Hunter was hired and that there was therefore no misuse of his political action committee funds which would be a federal crime (Schwartz, Ross, and Francescani, 2008).

Hunter gave birth to a daughter in February 2008 and Edwards denies that he is the father of her child (Schwartz, Ross, and Francescani, 2008). These authors state that the name of the child's father is left off the birth certificate. Edwards claims to have ended the relationship with Hunter long before there would have been the possibility that the child could be his (Neuman, 2009). A campaign aide to John Edwards, Andrew Young, publicly stated that he, not Edwards, was the father of the child (Neuman, 2009). However, a book proposal by Young that was recently leaked to the New York Times reveals that Young is now saying that Edwards asked him to cover up the situation and to claim he was the father of the child (Neuman, 2009).

One thing that isn't being denied is that Edwards' 2008 national finance chairman Fred Baron admits that he has provided financial "assistance" to both Hunter and Young. Baron, now deceased, stated that he gave this money without Edwards' knowledge to help his two personal friends rebuild their lives (Schwartz, Ross, and Francescani, 2008). Part of Baron's money was used to help move Hunter and her child from North Carolina to California. Edwards avows, "I had nothing to do with any money being paid, and no knowledge of any money being paid, and if something was paid, it wasn't being paid on my behalf." (Schwartz, Ross, and Francescani, 2008).

Today, Edwards is now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation which is looking at whether there were false reports in how funds from Edwards' campaign or one of these groups were spent, whether any money was passed from the recipient to Hunter, and whether any campaign or nonprofit money was spent on providing a personal benefit (MacGillis, 2009). The comments of a former Edwards' supporter illustrate the gravity of his misconduct. Instead of giving her typical contributions to charities every year such as an organization that feeds low-income families and another that rescues abandoned animals, she chose to give the money to Edwards' campaign in '07 and '08 (Henneberger, 2009). She said, "I did that because of promises he made that I believed. But I was lied to, and basically feel like I've been bilked out of a substantial amount of money I'd like back." (Henneberger, 2009).