Ethics and How They Are Applied to Decisons Made by Our Government
Do We as a Nation Still Apply Ethics when it Comes to Making Big Decisions?
One of the biggest ethical controversies today is abortion. "In 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided that a women is allowed to abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the point of which the fetus is able to live outside of the mother's womb." (Roe VS Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 1973) The Supreme Court made this decision after a woman, Roe, wanted to terminate her pregnancy, but at the time had no legal grounds to do so. Of course now we know they ruled in her favor.
I do believe that terminating this baby, or fetus, was immoral and selfish. What about all those people who need a feeding tube for food, or a breathing machine to breathe? Just as an unborn child depends on his or her mother to feed and breathe. Do they deserve to die? It is unbelievable what some people consider to be just and unjust.
The acts performed in an abortion are far worse than what some consider as torture to a terrorist that has committed Heinous crimes against a society. Why should a terrorist be given more rights than an ,unborn child?
This brings me to the subject of water-boarding. "Water-boarding, is a near-drowning technique that was used by the CIA interrogators to gain information from known terrorists such as, Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed." (Shane, 2009)
According to the New York Times the Obama Administration describes this act as being "illegal torture." I guess pouring water over someone's face that killed thousands of innocent people is worse than ripping the limbs off of an unborn child.
The feelings of this supposed immoral act on these terrorists, are the cause of what I believe to be another ethical issue, the closing of Guantanamo Bay. According to an Article from the Political Intelligence, "Obama signed orders to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center to ban harsh interrogations. He claims that the message he is sending around the world is that the United States vigilantly wants to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and will do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." (Rhee, 2009)
This statement not only makes him a hypocrite but also brings our values to a low-point. This is the same person who in October of 2007, voted against the banning of Partial-birth abortion and in 2008 opposed legislation of protecting born-alive failed abortions. I cannot believe that ethics apply when someone values the life of a terrorist over the life of an unborn child.
Another issue emerges from the closing of Guantanamo Bay, and giving rights to a criminal over innocent children. This is the enabling of the 9-11 terrorists to be tried as civilians in a court of law, in New York. How could this possibly have a positive outcome? According to an article on uncoverage.net, "The masterminds in charge of the 9-11 attacks are being flown to New York and being tried as civilians a few blocks away from ground zero. These terrorists were being held in the secure Guantanamo Bay detention center that Obama wants to shut down. It is said that these terrorists may be exonerated on legal grounds because they were arrested and detained as war criminals. They were not read their Miranda rights and not given a speedy trial under civilian procedure." (uncoverage.net, 2009) I thought war crimes were tried differently than other crimes. I believe that in such crimes these individuals give up certain rights.
I feel this was a bad decision just in matters of National Security. These were terrorist attacks committed by people who believe all infidels should die because they are of certain faith. I feel this is a disaster waiting to happen. Just like the article on uncoverage.net, it's a risk because of "Islamic protesters and the possibility it may lead to another attack on American soil." (Uncoverage.net, 2009) Guantanamo Bay is secure and not on American soil. Therefore, we are in less danger.
Obama also wants to start detaining these criminals in a prison in Illinois. How is putting these criminals permanently in America going to be beneficial to us. Well, it's not beneficial to us, but it is to the criminals. They live better and have more privileges in American prison, and American tax dollars pay for it.
How is it possible a war criminal has more rights than an innocent child? Or better, why would someone want to shut down a facility that protects our society, yet give funds to open facilities that aide in the murder of unborn children?
It is very difficult to improve the decision making on issues such as abortion and war crimes when there are so many different standards people live by. Maybe if the people who go by better standards would speak out more it would affect the outcome on some of the laws being made. Or would it?
Now days "We The People" have to be careful, with what is said, because freedom of speech doesn't apply much anymore. Well, at least to certain people.
I have been a pro-life believer since I was a child, but now I've been labeled as a radical. Why is that? The only reason I can come up with is, people are just plain ignorant. Some people just want a law to give them an excuse to cover up their immoral behavior.
So when it comes down to it, I believe in today's society very little ethics are used in deciding on certain issues in the government system. The comparison, of the decisions on abortion, and the ordeals of Guantanamo Bay show the mind-set our government goes by. Hopefully in the near future people will begin to see that the life of an innocent unborn child is more precious than the rights of a terrorist. But for the time being, Lord help us all!
References
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). ROE ET AL. v. WADE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF DALLAS COUNTY APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS. No. 70-18. http://laws.findlaw.com/us/410/113.html
Shane S., 2009. The New York Times. Water-boarding Used 266 times on 2 suspects.
Rhee F., 2009. Political Intelligence. Obama Orders Guantanamo Bay Closed, Bans Torture.
Undefined Author., 2009. Uncoverage.net. 9-11 Terrorists coming to New York to be tried as Civilians.
Ruggerio (2008) Thinking Critically about ethical issues (7th Ed)
Published by Chrys Staton
Chrys Staton, a die hard conservative born Oct 4, 1982 to Nelson and Patricia sims in Wichita Falls, Texas. Involved in sharing views and distributing information about pro-life, by working with Right to Life. View profile
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18 Comments
Post a CommentI Facebooked you. I don't agree with everything you say, but I like your passion.
On the issue of abortion.... I think it merits mentioning the accepted medical definition of death. In the United States, an human being can be declared deceased when the person has no brain activity, no respiration, and no heart beat. The fetal heartbeat begins around week 4, but keep in mind that the fetal heart is OUTSIDE its body (and not fully developed) at that time. The fetal brain waves are detected between weeks 13 and 16. Breathing movements are seen between weeks 29 and 32. So the question becomes, at what stage of fetal development can we accurately say that life begins. If one uses the medical definition of human life, early first-trimester abortions may not "kill" unborn children.
What we need is for people to act responsibly, we know what makes babies, if you are adult enough to have sex you should be adult enough to protect yourself against an unwanted pregnancy and take responsibility for the outcome,should a baby be conceived This does not mean running to the doctor to get an abortion, because you are being inconvienced. And to the poor women who are molested, yes it's going to be hard, but that child could be the best thing in the world, if not to you to some one waiting for a child, your allowing the horrible thing that happened to you, to drive you to do something even more horrible to your own child, that child after all is half you, and is absolutely blameless. Good job Chrystal.
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many elderly people, living quietly in their homes were dragged away and killed. Isn't this what Pelosi wants? She says old people shouldn't be obsessed with living a long time! I'm sure the same people who have so little regard for the human life of babies have no more regard for the lives of others. Factotem implies that Christians are trying to establish God's righteousness just by laws, on this planet, Christians are carrying out large scale evangelism because we know that a changed heart is a better answer to unrighteousness than retraining laws, but we need both. Smart people are careful of the principles they set up.
Chris,I think this discussion would benefit from from definitions. God gave us some guidelines. The most important is in the Ten Commandments, "You shall not kill." Exod. 20:13. In the Hebrew language there are several words for kill, the word used here means "innocent human life". Killing a convicted murderer is not taking innocent human life but killing a baby is. So Christians are not being inconsistent when they oppose abortion and are in favor of God ordained Capital Punishment. Some of the commentators here clearly show that they have little respect for God's laws and for human life. Since they have opened the door for indiscriminate killing, is it OK for those of us who see little use for their lives to kill them? This is no casual example. Prior to Hitler's takeover of Germany, there was a very influential book published there on The Destruction of Absolutely Useless Human Life" Ernst Haeckel was instrumental getting this enacted into law and m
God never intended for everything to be wonderful all the time. You should, fear the wrath of God. I feel that if WE as a nation do not set forth better values, (one being, a law to ban abortion) that we will face consequences as country. I know that even if a law is put in place it will not change people's hearts, and some will even do it illegally. But if it saves just one child, I would have to say its worth the fight.
referring to the comment made by "think about this", children sometimes are put in bad situations. I grew up in a foster home. I was lucky enough to have wonderful parents, but do you know what takes place in an abortion.....? You are worried about what the child will go through growing up? Do you know that a child can feel pain in the womb? Do you know that there are several types of abortion? Ripping the limbs off babies, sticking srgical instruments in the babies brain to kill it. using saline to burn the baby. oh and sometimes live birth abortion. setting the child aside to die after a botched abortion...Aborton is a selfish act no matter if a women was raped or just accidently got prgnant. Also you are never going to get anywhere in life, if you think everything should be easy....studying was never meant to be easy, but people do it all the time. I have to agree with this aritcle. I believe there are selfish people out there who want an excuse for there immoral behavior.
to change because this country was founded on christian values. Even though we cant change peoples hearts, we can still try to save millions of innocent babies being killed.
I agree with Chrys, there are many opportunities in this country. It seems to me that since you asked her what she thought about your question, that is was a blessing to her. I dont think what she said was arrogant, I was in that situation, at a point in my life, but I knew what i had to do. Abortion is not an answer for what could happen. "just kill the baby" because the baby might end up in a bad foster home. That is selfish! If a women is raped, I feel for her, but two wrongs don't make a right. Again it is selfish. And you should also look at real facts and statistics, it is not that often that a women gets pregnant after rape. Im not saying that it never happens but not as often as you think. I dont know what you meant about the comment that God gave us free will. do you mean to Kill? Because even though you can make a choice, there still should be consequences. because it says thou shalt not kill, especially an innocent child. The law in this country does need to c