Ethics Statement I Base My Personal Ethics

Ethics Statement

I base my personal ethics on the rights and responsibilities lens from the Four Ethical Lenses. This lens focuses on the key questions such as:

What rules and duties must we follow? And What rights are relevant?

This standard of ethics is rooted in deontological ethics, where our actions are guided by our sense of right and wrong, and that sense is in turn guided by society's standards. Consider the aspect of caring -- surely everybody in our profession is caring in some way. The way that I approach the issue of caring is that I must follow my duties -- that is the best way to care for somebody -- by ensuring that you do as you are told and do not cut corners. People have rights, and that is something that also must play into it. I believe in fundamental human rights to be treated with dignity regardless of creed, color, age, disability or any other attribute. We are all the same on the inside and I feel that most people in society would agree that everybody should be treated with dignity and with utmost professionalism.

This calls into play the issue of respect. The word respect means different things to different people, so it can be difficult to determine what exactly constitutes treating somebody with respect. What I believe is that we as a society have established a rule -- the Golden Rule -- with regard to the respect we should show other people. I always place myself in the position of the other person, and in doing so this provides me with some guidance with for how to treat them. I want to be treated with utmost respect so I treat others the same way. I feel that when we do this, as human beings, we avoid a lot of the ethical problems that plague our society. More respect for each other, and treating each other as we would want to be treated ourselves, and I think a lot of the problems you see in this world would not exist. So I consider respect for others as a cornerstone of my ethical philosophy.

Another cornerstone of my ethical philosophy is honesty. At the most basic level, I follow the laws of the land with respect to honesty. I would never lie to a customer or mislead them, nor would I do that to a boss or co-worker. Honesty builds a foundation of trust, and it is one area where I feel that it is difficult to compromise without ruining that foundation of trust upon which human interactions are built. As a result, I take honesty very seriously, and make it a way of life. I encourage others around me to do the same -- when I see somebody playing fast and loose with the truth it bothers me and I am liable to stand up for the truth in such instances. I do not believe that my ethics should be compromised, simply because I do not believe that being honest is something negative that should be pushed to the side for the sake of convenience.

This brings me to responsibility, another cornerstone of my ethical philosophy. As adults, we have the burden of responsibility, and we owe this burden to a lot of people. It is easy to say that that one is responsible, but there are times when difficult choices must be made with respect to responsibility and that is where the strength in one's own ethical philosophy comes into play. I believe that we each need to accept the responsibility that is afforded to us, even when it is inconvenient to do so. This is because our society has set an unwritten rule in place that tells us that responsibility is something that adults embrace and do not shy away from. Being able to rise to the challenges that come with responsibility is something that is important for people in leadership positions especially, which is why I feel that responsibility is important enough to be included in the four cornerstones of my ethical philosophy.

Ultimately, having a personal philosophy of ethics is very important. When we take the time to consider what our ethics are, we can be sure that our philosophies make sense, that they are internally consistent. For anybody with a strong and clearly defined set of personal ethics, it is much easier to make good ethical decisions in the future. We are guided by the laws of the land and the rules that our society holds to. We learn what is good ethical behavior and what is not. For me, following the rules is central to that. The point is to realize that the rules are there for a reason, and therefore I should follow them.