A Gift of Life: Developing a Framework for Practical Ethics

Abstract

This chapter is a draft of the first of five case studies in my 2015 book Ethics in Public Life: Good Practitioners in a Rising Asia. The case studies relate the experiences of specific practitioners in identified Asian contexts, struggling to act purposefully and conscientiously within their spheres of work, to meet their professional duties as they understand them. They include a doctor in Singapore, a missionary in China, a political activist in India, a mid-level bureaucrat in a central Asian country, and a journalist in Cambodia. Through careful examination of the cases, it is possible to learn a great deal about the craft of the ethical practitioner, specifically the kinds of moral competence practitioners require to act effectively and well in public life. Learning comes from paying close attention to decision making as it is lived, achieving a depth of understanding typically missed by students of ethics, with lessons for practitioners everywhere. The first of the five studies, posted here, also elaborates a general framework for practical ethics, which informs the analysis in each of the subsequent chapters.