Ethical Choices Research Articles

The metamorphosis of "Butterfly"

AbstractIn 2017, David Henry Hwang reworked his Tony Award‐winning play M. Butterfly (1988). This paper explores how Hwang wrote and rewrote M. Butterfly from the perspective of ethical literary criticism, probing into the role of brain text played in the process of drama writing. By investigating the variations of the Madame Butterfly story—from love legend to spy story—and the Madame Butterfly image—from Madame Butterfly to M. Butterfly, from Oriental Butterfly to Chinese Butterfly—this paper explains the forming of Hwang's brain text and his creation of M. Butterfly, the decoding of brain text and his writing of two Monsieur Butterflies, as well as the recoding of brain text and his building of a new cultural identity. It argues that brain text determines the playwright's writings and styles, and the dynamic revisions of M. Butterfly can be the manifestation and reconstruction of Hwang's brain texts, which represent his ethical choices made in the process of writing and rewriting. The metamorphosis of “Butterfly” in the two scripts of M. Butterfly reveals the playwright's dynamic thoughts on culture, gender, and identity: cultural stereotypes and the power relation between East and West; the cultural misunderstanding of Orientalism; and gender identity and fluidity in the twenty‐first century.

How Principles and Values Backing the Profesionnal Identity of French and Finnish Teachers Differentiate Their Ability to Face Educational Change

Forty-six interviews of French and Finnish Junior High School teachers clearly show a strong will to link professional commitment to common progressive values. However, the interviewees have to adjust these political or philosophical views when confronted with the reality of their professional everyday life and to the development of widely broadcast educational debates, like the ones about the recent reforms concerning the Junior High School level in both France and Finland, conducted at the time of the interviews (2016 and 2017). These adjustments, linked either to the circumstances or to practical realities, challenge the internal coherence of their ethical choices. This paper shows that the reference principles and the practical implications of such choices are not asserted as sharply in France as in Finland. It highlights the unequal ability of the teachers of both countries to make sense of their professional experience and to appropriate the terms of the debates on the evolution of teaching.

Ethical Expertise of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Subject-oriented Social Relationships

The ethical examination of modern technologies, especially those that use artificial intelligence, can be based on an approach that focuses not on the technology itself, but on the subject as a human-agent who can be the developer and user of this technology. In this article, we consider the concept of an ethical subject as an agent with the fundamental ability to make ethically significant choices. The peculiarity of such choices is that they are significant not only for society, but also for the ethical subjects themselves, who are always not only a means, but also the goal of moral actions. That is why such ethical subjects can be only persons or groups of people, but not technology, even the most advanced – otherwise it would be the goal of ethical choices for itself and for people. Ethical expertise of a technology capable of acting independently of a person is possible, as we believe, through its «training» to recognize situations of applying those solutions to ethical dilemmas that are provided by a person, and valuation of the results of such recognition. A part of such «training» may be worth providing not only to developers, but also to users, remembering the fact that all these solutions should also be brought into compliance with local legislative norms.

Significance of the Constitutional Category of Personal Dignity in Bioethics and Medicine

The article raises the question of the dignity of the individual in the field of bioethics and medicine. The author notes that today the number of situations in medicine and law is increasing when it is necessary to make a difficult ethical choice, while relying on the priority of the value of human life. This scientific work focuses on the fact that, despite a number of contradictions, bioethics, law and medicine have common values — human life and dignity. The paper analyzes the works of domestic and foreign authors devoted to bioethics and its correlation with the rules of law. In particular, the terminological aspect is considered. Having conducted a comprehensive study of dogmatic sources, the author offers her own version of the definition of the dignity of the individual as a category in the field of somatic and bioethical rights. Since the relationship between bioethics, medicine and law is quite young for the Russian Federation, there are a number of gaps in our legal system. The author of the article talks about the prospects for the gradual development of legal regulation of relations related to bioethics and medicine, which will lead to the minimization of such gaps.

“My roots are green”: a phenomenological discourse on intergenerational green motherhood in non-Western consumption contexts

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the lived experiences of modern urban mothers in Pakistan as they navigate shared motherhood responsibilities with family elders. This paper brings to light their feelings, fears and ambitions towards safeguarding the environment for the future of their children, by reconciling ancient traditions of their female elders with contemporary sustainable consumption practices.Design/methodology/approachThis phenomenological study explores lived experiences of urban mothers through in-depth personal interviews. Their discourse explores sharing childcare responsibilities with family matriarchs, negotiating “green” parenting strategies between intergenerational parenting partners.FindingsNavigating life through the intersections of modernity and tradition and ethical choices and consumerism, urban mothers integrate wisdom of their ancestors into their modern lives to mitigate the environmental degradation of today.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on a unique genre of green mothers, termed as the traditionally green eco-mom, which allows modern mothers and their female elders to synchronously adopt sustainable childcare behaviours that overcome intergenerational barriers by reconciling contemporary lifestyles with traditional wisdom.

Corporate culture: Evidence from the field

Ninety-two percent of the 1348 North American executives we survey believe that improving corporate culture would increase firm value. A striking 84% believe their company needs to improve its culture. But how can that be achieved? Our paper provides some guidance by documenting the following: executives’ views on what corporate culture is and how it operates, distinguishing between stated values and everyday norms; the extent to which culture is perceived to influence value creation (productivity, mergers), ethical choices (compliance, short-termism), and innovation (creativity, risk-taking); and a list of obstacles that can prevent culture from being where it should be (inattentive leaders, misaligned incentive compensation). Finally, we provide evidence that the executives’ survey responses are consistent with external data.

The Lifeboat at World's End: Moving Beyond Crisis Standards of Care.

It may be too late to avoid the climate crisis, likely to be humanity's most expensive, widespread, and enduring catastrophe. This is a qualitatively different kind of catastrophe, in which increased costs, decreased revenue, and no possibility of bailout force communities to harshly cut budgets, especially in health care. Little is known about making such brutal cuts fair or efficient, nor how to help the public accept them. The crisis presents an opportunity for bioethicists to play a crucial role, but one for which traditional approaches are inherently inadequate. Although often dismissed as heartless, Garrett Hardin's "lifeboat ethics" started a conversation about making ethical choices in global disasters-where all options are painful and unacceptable-and may provide guidance. Bioethics during the climate crisis must focus on communities rather than individuals and help survivors grieve the terrible consequences. Because today's choices will affect many generations, with the burdens falling most heavily on poor communities, we have to construct a radical bioethics to help tomorrow's health care become green, efficient, and fair.

(ECO)Ethical Issues in Organizations Including Healthcare Facilities

Abstract Ethics issues are present in the daily life of every human being. This paper presents an overview of difficult, yet everyday ethics dilemmas, and general rules and tools helping in making ethical choices. These tools are: distinguishing facts from values, reasoning from principles, defining terms and clarifying concepts, comparing cases, thought experiments, logic, and recognizing and avoiding errors in reasoning. But ethical issues also appear on a bigger scale in every social group, including organizations. The paper contains a literature review and an analysis of it applied to the present day. The analysis includes topics of medical ethics, business ethics and ecoethics, and was conducted according to the basic tools used in ethical problem solving. There are also discussions about a key condition for performing ethical analysis, that is, the distinction between ethics and morality. An ethical solution is dictated by logical principles and based on facts, while respecting the tools of ethical reasoning. In contrast, accepted values are also taken into account when interpreting events morally.

An Analysis on Carrie’s Ethical Choices in Sister Carrie

Sister Carrie is the masterpiece of Theodore Dreiser, an American realist writer. The novel is set in the big cities of Chicago and New York at the turn of 20th century. At that time, Consumer Culture prevailed and money defined interpersonal relationship in the United States. This paper made an in-depth analysis of Carrie’s ethical choices from the perspective of Nie Zhenzhao’s Ethical Literary Criticism. Ethical Literary Criticism emphasizes that a novel should not be isolated from its ethical environment. Therefore, this paper focuses on the ethical environment at that time, Carrie’s moral confusion and and the ethical choices she makes. Meanwhile, it is summarized that Carrie is not a simply moral degenerate, but a new citizen who is deeply affected by social transformation with a new ethical tendency, which represents Dreiser’s ethical value.

Exploring Codes of Conduct in the Supplier Selection Decision at Financially Distressed Firms

Building on the ethical decision-making literature and the concept of decision frames, this study provides an exploration of the decision-making process of purchasing managers at financially distressed firms. Codes of Conduct (CoC) and the way they are enforced are explored in terms of their ability to inform and guide purchasing managers in their decisions. Four experiments involving a total of 648 purchasing managers at manufacturing firms were conducted. The results indicate that purchasing managers at firms in financial distress were 2.67 times more likely to select unethical suppliers. As a potential remedy, it is found that the enforcement of the firm’s CoC can decrease this tendency by between 64 and 79 percent. However, enforcing CoCs is not straightforward and the simultaneous presence of enforcement methods that induce opposing decision frames was found to harm, rather than support, ethical supplier choices vis-á-vis situations where only one enforcement method is present. These findings develop an improved understanding of purchasers’ decision-making processes and offer insights on how to effectively guide these decisions.

1930년대 한·중 심리소설 속 윤리의식 고찰 - ‘李箱’과 ‘施蟄存’을 중심으로 -

In this study, the problem of ethical consciousness of characters appearing in Lee Sang''s novel and Shi Zhou-chun''s psychological novel in the colonial space of ''Gyeongseong'' and ''Shanghai'' in the 1930s was investigated. In addition, considerations on literary ethics were also discussed. The two authors mainly expressed the plight of intellectuals as psychological conflict. In the 1930s, Gyeongseong and Shanghai were colonial and semi-colonial spaces of Korea and China in the modern period, and were spaces of oppression and a place where rational thinking was not easy. These two places have in common that they are a space where conflicts that were latent in the 1930s between humans and the environment, between humans and between humans and individuals exploded. Lee Sang and Shi Zhecun, who worked in Gyeongseong and Shanghai, respectively, are representative artists who portrayed the psychological wanderings and ethical conflicts of people in these environments. Through his novels, Lee Sang shows that the most important causes of the fall of mankind are the lack of communication, the lack of understanding of others, and the lack of character. On the other hand, the ethical consciousness in Shi Zhecun''s novel is not revealed directly on the surface of the work, but is secretly revealed through taboos that constitute the conflicting elements of the characters. The conflict over whether or not to keep the ethics of the eldest son in the family shown in the novel above, and the desire to deviate from the ethic of maintaining the chastity between husband and wife in the novel Shi Zhecun all require ethical choices. As a result of that choice, we face death as in the novel above, or return to our daily lives as in Shi Zhecun''s novel. Literature is not about judging whether an ethical choice was right or not. This is because literature essentially has a mission to seek freedom of the human mind and liberate it from ideological bondage.

Commodification, Sexuality and Choice Among School Children in A Ghanaian Community: The Consequences for Teaching, Learning and Life Chances

This paper explores the phenomenon of early sexual practices among young schoolchildren in Ghana through the lens of the ability of young people in two peri-urban communities to make better or productive moral and ethical judgements that enable the sustenance of opportunities for education, learning and life chances. Using a questionnaire, interviews, conversations and observations, it reckons the schoolchildren’s reasoning and consciousness in determining their attitudes towards choices concerning early sexual practices and in their indulgence or otherwise. It argues that schoolchildren’s attitudes and behaviour are shaped by social philosophies including empiricism, solipsism, economism and commodification in a complete departure from the ways of knowing that obtained in society a generation ago. The consequences of such a radical change from the traditionalism of a generation ago is the development of a nihilistic attitude guiding their moral and ethical choices which are nevertheless detrimental to their own development into personhood and the development of their future opportunities through education, learning and life chances.

Ethics in Psychotherapy: Informed Consent, Digital Professionalism, and Sexual Misconduct.

Ethics in Psychotherapy: Informed Consent, Digital Professionalism, and Sexual Misconduct.

Influence of empathy and professional values on ethical decision-making of emergency nurses: A cross sectional study

IntroductionEmergency nurses are likely to experience serious ethical dilemmas and conflicts because of the dangerous and unpredictable care situations. Nursing ethical decision-making ability is therefore a core competence. Empathy and professional values may be the important variables that influence ethical decision-making. However, for emergency nurses, there is a lack of empirical evidence to support presently. This study aimed to explore the influence of empathy and professional values on nursing ethical decision-making of emergency nurses. MethodsA convenience sample of 236 emergency nurses from 10 general hospitals in China were surveyed. Their ethical decision-making ability, empathy and professional values were measured using the Judgment About Nursing Decision scale, Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals, and Nursing Professional Values Scale-Revised, respectively. Additionally, their sociodemographic data were collected. Univariate analysis, Pearson analysis, and multiple linear regression were performed. ResultsThe mean ethical decision-making score of emergency nurses was 295.06 ± 26.49, which was medium level. Their average ethical choice score was higher than that of ethical action (P < 0.001). The multiple linear regression results showed that professional values (Standardized coefficients (β) = 0.295, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.618–1.618), empathy (β = 0.210, 95% CI: 0.620–1.613), job title (β = 0.253, 95% CI: 0.357–2.800) and number of forms of in-service training on ethical decision-making (β = 0.243, 95% CI: 0.254–3.942) were the independent factors significantly influencing the ethical decision-making ability. The multivariate linear regression model had an F statistic of 32.153 (P < 0.001) and an R2 = 0.588. ConclusionsStrengthening nurses’ empathy and professional values can help nurses make ethical decisions. More clinical experience and in-service training on ethical decision-making can help emergency nurses better handle ethical dilemmas and conflicts.

Feeling Fit and Looking Good: The Impact of Materialism, Peer Approval and Sex Appeal on Youth Consumer Perceptions towards Fitness Studio Advertising

This paper addresses young Malaysian consumers’ perceptions and marketplace behaviour through advertising for aspirational and lifestyle consumption. The aim is to study the impact of aspirational advertising on materialism, peer approval, sex appeal, and body image. The literature review uses marketing and social theories, while the appeals of emotional advertising will be discussed through a case study analysis examining how Malaysian fitness advertisements on digital and social media impact youth attitudes towards physical appearance and through capturing emotional experiences and their association with materialistic values, peer approval and self-image. Findings present a cultural perspective in understanding the current standards of ethical decision-making and what factors are relevant as lifestyle aspects of ethical choices and decision-making for fitness brands among youth consumer market segments. It was found that aspirational advertising for fitness brands in Malaysia is designed to build perceptions that personal consumption choices represent values such as social and peer approval, with less emphasis on materialistic values and body image. This demonstrates that advertising may influence some aspects of materialist, aspirational consumption choices, but peer pressure and cultural values have strong implications on youth consumption behaviour. Some practical recommendations are suggested for marketing practitioners and consumer behaviour researchers to invest, in optimising the power of social media marketing and advertising.

Is Environmental Sustainability Also “Economically Efficient”? The Case of the “SOStain” Certification for Sicilian Sparkling Wines

The Italian wine industry is strongly committed to sustainability. Among the numerous sustainability certifications and programs implemented in Italy for the wine sector, SOStain is the oldest at the regional level. The SOStain Foundation promotes the voluntary application of a sustainability program, developed in 2010 in Sicily (Southern Italy). The requirements of the SOStain specifications are connected to the new CAP 2023–2027 objectives; therefore, companies preparing for the new challenges of future winemaking might be interested in joining the SOStain Foundation for greening production practices. The objective of this study was to learn producers’ and consumers’ opinions about motivations, real/perceived difficulties, cost, and positive effects of the SOStain certification, as well as their intentions to make ethical choices and their willingness to spend more for a Sicilian sparkling wine with the SOStain certification. A census of producers combined with a consumer survey and focus groups were carried out. Multidimensional scaling was used to discover the polarization of producers’/consumers’ opinions regarding the SOStain certification. The findings highlighted the effect of ethical choices, despite sensory likings, on purchasing intentions and issues related to higher costs of production and market prices. The results highlighted the criticalities of the green transition for wineries and the importance of correct communication through social media.

Impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility on Employees' Mental Fatigue: Employees' Ethical Perspective.

With the rise of cost of living and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic therewithal, finding reliable measures to reduce employees’ mental fatigue has become a great challenge. In this context, scholars have mainly focused on solutions for relieving employees’ mental fatigue from the perspective of human resource management but barely from employees’ ethical perspectives and that of internal and external corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees’ ethics. This study uses hierarchical regression analysis and attempts to formulate and analyze the relationship between CSR, perceptions of corporate hypocrisy, and employees’ mental fatigue along with the mediating role of ethical egoism and altruistic choice. It also conceptualizes models and develops various hypotheses and theoretical logic. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed, and 176 valid responses were subsequently gathered. The results show that employees’ mental fatigue significantly reduces when either internal or external CSR has a positive impact on employees’ altruistic choice and significantly increases either internal or external CSR has a negative effect on ethical egoism. Similarly, reducing perceptions of corporate hypocrisy can enhance the positive impact of external CSR on altruistic choice, which consequently reduces employees’ mental fatigue.

Impact of societal and legal context on the blood supply of African-ancestry populations in Western countries: A review of practices and the French example.

In Western countries, blood supply agencies encounter impediments in providing blood groups defined as rare or of interest, notably for sub-Saharan African ancestry (SSAA) recipients. To establish warning levels and anticipate future blood needs, an estimate of the current carriers of rare blood groups, both potential patients or donors, is crucial but complex. Indeed, if the strict needs can be estimated in medical terms, the modalities of blood product collection must be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective, at the interface of biological data and social norms. Here, we aim to understand how legal choices and a set of representations of otherness may influence the supply of rare blood for SSAA populations. After examining these issues, considering different norms and limits that govern French society, we compare this data with those of four Western countries facing the same difficulties (United States, United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands). This work began as part as the reflections of Social Lab, an institutional programme created by the French Blood Establishment (EFS). How can we effectively improve the qualitative blood coverage for SSAA populations? There is no unique solution, but there are many more or less effective answers. Comparison across countries reveals a strong influence of the socio-political histories and ethical choices before technical and medical considerations. We consider that an institutional policy is required to resolve recruitment issues of SSAA donors sustainably. Lastly, we introduce a working group called the EFS Social Lab, which aims to set up a monitoring mechanism for donors and societal trends to make blood donation effective.

Ethics of Self-driving Cars: A Naturalistic Approach

The potential development of self-driving cars (also known as autonomous vehicles or AVs – particularly Level 5 AVs) has called the attention of different interested parties. Yet, there are still only a few relevant international regulations on them, no emergency patterns accepted by communities and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and no publicly accepted solutions to some of their pending ethical problems. Thus, this paper aims to provide some possible answers to these moral and practical dilemmas. In particular, we focus on what AVs should do in no-win scenarios and on who should be held responsible for these types of decisions. A naturalistic perspective on ethics informs our proposal, which, we argue, could represent a pragmatic and realistic solution to the regulation of AVs. We discuss the proposals already set out in the current literature regarding both policy-making strategies and theoretical accounts. In fact, we consider and reject descriptive approaches to the problem as well as the option of using either a strict deontological view or a solely utilitarian one to set AVs’ ethical choices. Instead, to provide concrete answers to AVs’ ethical problems, we examine three hierarchical levels of decision-making processes: country-wide regulations, OEM policies, and buyers’ moral attitudes. By appropriately distributing ethical decisions and considering their practical implications, we maintain that our proposal based on ethical naturalism recognizes the importance of all stakeholders and allows the most able of them to take actions (the OEMs and buyers) to reflect on the moral leeway and weight of their options.

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