The Relationship between Ethics and Law

Introduction

How do members of a society determine what is right and what is wrong? There is no one answer to this question. In our personal lives, we are continually faced with ethical issues or challenges. How we respond to those issues reflects our own ethics or morality. Individuals use different ways to make decisions based on various personal insight or considerations. Some people make decisions based on conscious, some based on religious beliefs, while others make decisions based on family teachings. Many decision-making processes come from interpersonal cultural beliefs while others are based on professional codes of conduct or a professional code of ethics. In this microlesson, we will take a further look into ethics and how they relate to the process of making decisions.

Of course, as much as we would like it to be a perfect world where everyone did the right thing every day all the time – that is not the case. Hence comes the need for law and order. We will take a look also into defining law and why law is necessary.

Key Terms

Ethics – the means for determining what a society’s values should be
Morality – values that govern a society’s attitude toward right and wrong
Honesty – being open and truthful in dealing with others
Justice – ability to treat all people fairly
Compassion – sympathy towards the difficulties of others
Integrity – willingness to do the right thing regardless of personal consequences

Ethical Standards and Moral Aptitude

In the CTAE Foundations Module, we talked about making decisions and following a decision-making process. However, in making those decisions it can sometimes be difficult in determining what may be right or wrong in a given situation.

Finalizing a decision most often comes down to a person’s ethical standards or moral aptitude. Morality involves the values that govern a society’s attitude toward right and wrong. In contrast, ethics are the means for determining what a society’s values should be. In those times in our life when faced with ethical issues it will be important to have a consistent ethical standard.

Individuals deal with ethical decisions in different ways. Review the diagram below to review some of those influences.

In considering the process of ethical decision making, you also need to understand what makes a persona ethical. Review the diagram for the character traits of an ethical person.

Let's Review

Take a moment to participate in the activities below to practice your understanding of the topics in this module.

Final Thoughts

We have looked at a number of processes people may use in making ethical decisions. If these processes always produced the same ethical results and people always acted as they should, there would be no reason for rules, regulations, or laws.

Law is needed because people do not always behave as they should. Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the government of a society to maintain stability and justice.

Our laws define the legal rights and duties of the people of a society. Even our laws cannot make people or businesses do the right thing; however, the law does have the power and provides the processes to punish those who do wrong.

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