Ethics

1. Ethics Ethics are standards of conduct or social norms that prescribe behavior. Ethics as a field of study is a normative discipline whose main goals are prescriptive and evaluative rather than descriptive and explanatory.

2. Why Ethics Become Important • Nowadays, conflicts of interests between the government and medical institutions, between medical institutions and medical personnel, between physicians and patients are getting more and more serious and complex. • High technologies not only brought us hopes of cure but have also created a heavy economic burden. • The ethical dilemmas of high technology medicine-brain death, organ transplantation, and concerns about quality of life-have become increasingly prominent.

3. What is Morality • The science of human duty; the rules of human conduct Ethics aims at discovering what are those other properties belonging to all things which are good.

4. Ethics and Morality • we can see moral standards distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice, justice and injustice. • Ethics are not general standards of conduct but the standards of a particular profession, occupation, institution, or group within society.

5. distinguish between Ethics and Law • some actions that are illegal may not be unethical. • some actions that are unethical may not be illegal. • laws can be unethical or immoral. • we use different kinds of mechanisms to express, teach, inculcate, and enforce laws and ethics. • Laws are often expressed in highly technical and complex jargon, and we often need specially trained people lawyers and judges to interpret them.

6. Political and ethics • • Political standards focus on the conduct of groups or social institutions, whereas ethical and moral standards focus on the conduct of individuals. • • Political standards take a macro-perspective on human affairs; ethical and moral standards adopt a micro-perspective. • • However, the distinction between ethics and politics is not absolute since many actions, institutions, and situations can be evaluated from an ethical or political point of view.

7. Medical ethics • Medical ethics It is just that in medical ethics these familiar moral rules are being applied to situations peculiar to the medical world.

8. Veterinary ethics • • Branch of philosophy deal with moral aspect of human behavior, the field of ethics or moral philosophy involved systemizing defending and recommending of right and wrong behavior. • Is a system of moral principles that apply values and judgment to the practice of veterinary medicine.

9. Ethical theories into three general subject area: • 1- Metaethics Investigates where our ethical principles come from and what they mean. Metaethics answers to these questions focus on the issue of universal truths,the will god,the role of reason in ethical judgment and the meaning of ethical term themselves. • 2- Normative ethics Taks on a more practical task which is to arrive at moral standards that regular right and wrong conduct. • 3- Applied ethics Involves examining specific controversial issues such abortion , animal rights, environmental concerns, nuclear war.