Module 4 Paper: Ethical Framework

Written Assignment

Your research paper should be a thorough, fully developed paper. It is not a short answer to the bullet points below. Those are simply guidelines for information which you should include in your paper. While there is not an actual page requirement, in the past most papers have been between 3-5 pages minimum.  You may want to review the guidelines for Scholarly Resources in graduate school Academic Quality Resources – What it means (Wikipedia is not a scholarly resource!) You should review the Written Paper Rubric (Accessible) to understand how papers will be evaluated and graded.

Real World Ethical Dilemmas

Please choose One Topic from the suggestions listed below. These are current or recent real world ethical dilemmas. You are to research the facts around the situation and present both sides of the position. It is not simply a this is how I feel paper. It needs to show your critical thinking skills as you explore the situations. Additional research will be necessary to support your findings. Then, with each ethical dilemma, I want you to analyze the situation from the three ethical decision-making theories weve discussed in this module to see if the outcome would be different, based on different perspectives.  You may not want to choose something you are entrenched and passionate about, as this paper will require you to put aside your personal feelings (which may be difficult).

Potential topics (choose only one)

• COVID-19 Vaccine distribution (i.e., determining who should get the vaccine; what if employees choose not to get vaccinated; what about universities and students vaccinations should they be required?)
• Nursing Home Cameras (i.e., privacy rights of the residents; HIPPA violations; providing comfort to family members).
• Flint water crisis (i.e, how can you solve the problem; what if you were on the city council over the last 5 years, what would you recommend?; tax hike in an economically depressed area seems unfair)
• Tech Companies Dominance (i.e., personal privacy, public safety, limiting speech).

If none of these topics are of interest to you, you may choose another real world topic, but it must be approved by the instructor first. The topic needs to include why it is an ethical dilemma (both sides).

Your paper needs to include:

• Start with identifying the ethical dilemma(s) related to your topic. While you may identify multiple ethical dilemmas, I want you to choose only ONE as the focus of your paper. Include why this is an ethical dilemma.
• Include multiple perspectives. Pay equal attention to each side of the argument (pro/con; for/against; etc.)
• Identify stakeholders (cast a very wide net by including everyone affected by this dilemma).
• Based on a deontological perspective (start by identifying what a deontological perspective is) how would you proceed to resolve this ethical dilemma and why (what is unique about this perspective).
• Based on a virtue theory perspective (again, start by identifying traits unique to this perspective) how would you proceed and why.
• Based on a utilitarian perspective (start by identifying the traits of the utilitarian theory and how it is different from other theories) and how would you proceed and why
• Does your decision making outcome change if you integrate end results? Do any of the theories weve studies incorporate end results or outcomes?
• Your summary section should provide your personal perspective and personal ethical decision making process (which in all likelihood may be a combination of the theories weve studied). In this section, please identify your perspective as it relates to a specific theory.