02/10 Recognizing and Framing Ethical Problems Free Online FlashCards

What makes a problem ethical?

An ethical problem concerns how people ought to act, how benefits and burdens should be distributed, or how people should be treated.

How does an ethical question differ from a technical or legal question?

A technical question asks what will work; a legal question asks what rules permit or require; an ethical question asks what is justified regarding affected people’s interests, rights, welfare, or dignity.

What five elements belong in a strong ethical problem statement?

A strong ethical problem statement identifies the decision-maker, proposed action, relevant circumstances, affected stakeholders, and competing values.

What is the fact–value distinction?

A descriptive claim reports or explains what is the case, while an evaluative claim judges something as good, bad, right, wrong, fair, unfair, important, or permissible.

What four categories should organize case analysis?

Known facts are supported by reliable evidence; unknown facts could affect the decision but remain unestablished; assumptions are unsupported beliefs treated as true; value judgments assess what is good, harmful, fair, right, or permissible.

When is a fact ethically relevant?

A fact is relevant when it could affect the ethical evaluation of an option, such as by changing its consequences, accessibility, distribution of burdens, or available alternatives.

Why must ethical concepts be clarified?

Clarification makes terms precise by specifying what they mean in the case, such as whether privacy concerns secrecy, control of information, freedom from surveillance, or all three.

What is a stakeholder?

A stakeholder is a person, group, institution, community, or sometimes nonhuman entity with an important interest in or exposure to a decision’s outcome.

Which stakeholder groups are easy to overlook?

Stakeholder analysis should include direct, indirect, vulnerable, future, voiceless or underrepresented, institutional, and relevant environmental or nonhuman stakeholders.

Does identifying a stakeholder settle the ethical decision?

Identifying a stakeholder makes that party’s interests visible for justification; it does not automatically determine how much weight those interests should receive.

What is an ethical trade-off?

A trade-off occurs when advancing one value may limit another, such as improving security while reducing privacy.

What qualities should a good ethical framing have?

A good ethical framing is specific, neutral enough for inquiry, fact-sensitive, stakeholder-aware, value-explicit, and action-guiding.