Special Ethical Questions

Ask/address an ethical question in your field of interest.

The ethical question I will be address is homosexual's in the military.  More specifically I will be talking about "Don't Ask Don't Tell", and the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. 

Develop/address arguments for each side of the issue, then defend your position on the issue.

        The Don't Ask Don't Tell law was in forced from December 1993 to September 2011.  Prior to the Don't Ask Don't Tell law in 1993 homosexuality was completely unacceptable.  Don't Ask Don't Tell was brought on by President Clinton, and basically was meant to end questioning soldiers of their sexuality.  Homosexuality was still unlawful under this law, but a homosexual could remain in the U.S. military as long as they kept it completely private.  The Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2011 ended Don't Ask Don't Tell, and now allows homosexuals to openly serve in the U.S. military. 
         I have served during the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, and for a short time I have served after the repeal act.  I have know of homosexuals in the military while I have served and never thought less of them as a soldier.  We all wear the same uniform, and are fighting for the same reasons.  If someone is willing to sign on the dotted line and put their life on the line for the United States they should have the right to be proud of who they and not hide it.  There have been many great soldiers that have been discharged from the United States military, because of the military's stance on homosexuality.  With the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy we will not have to lose another, and I believe it will strength the U.S. military.
         Although, I did not agree with the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy I can see why it was in affect for so many years.  The U.S. military has been based on tradition for hundreds of years, and changes do not come quickly.  The U.S. military believed that having openly gay or lesbian soldier's would weaken unit cohesion, discipline, and did not follow the morale standards of the military.  Many of these morale standards come form the Christian religion, which is obviously against homosexuality.  The last lines of the enlistment oath that every soldier entering the military must say is "So help me God".  Many of the military's traditions and morale's are based off of Christian beliefs, and accepting homosexuality would go against those traditions and morale's.  Another problem that can arise is that many people in the U.S. military are uncomfortable with homosexuality, and you can see how this could be a problem when a lot of the times you are eating, sleeping, and working with soldiers in your unit 24 hours a day seven days a week for sometimes a year at a time.  The Don't Ask Don't Tell policy kept a lot of these issues silenced by not allowing them to come up.  If soldier's were not allowed to Ask someone if they were a homosexual, and a homosexual was not allowed to tell anyone then there would be no disputes in a unit over these issues.  Below is a bullet taken from the Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy explaining the traditions and morales of the U.S. military and why they believed at the time that homsexuals should not serve openly(policy concerning homsexuality in the Armed Forces).

 (8)Military life is fundamentally different from civilian life in that—

(A)the extraordinary responsibilities of the armed forces, the unique conditions of military service, and the critical role of unit cohesion, require that the military community, while subject to civilian control, exist as a specialized society; and

(B)the military society is characterized by its own laws, rules, customs, and traditions, including numerous restrictions on personal behavior, that would not be acceptable in civilian society.

this activity must include references
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:7:./temp/~c111SNIR00 (Library of Congress - Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act 2011)

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/654.html  (U.S.C.  654- policy concerning homsexuality in the Armed Forces)



each student will then review this beginning on Nov 2.

Title, Issue, Action Plan

Post your team's project Title, Issue, and Action Plan.

-          Topic place solar panels on all of the Jarvis/Micheels Buildings

-          Issues – Cost, Time, Feasibility, Benefits, Maintenance(sustainability)

-          Budget Group - cost feasibility (Tom / Amy) yorka8950@my.uwstout.edu

-          Benefits/ Time

-          Legal(business, ethics)(Camille, Sam)

-          Technological Development –

-          Sustainability -

I am part of the Budget group, and will be responsible with determining cost and feasibility of placing Solar Panels on Jarvis Hall.

MN Wild

Is it ethical for a physician to accept Wild tickets from a pharmaceutical rep to take her family to the game?

 

I believe that it is fine for a physician to accept Wild tickets from a pharmaceutical rep.  If they want to give them away why wouldn't you take them?  It doesn't become unethical until the physicians opinions and decisions begin to change based on gifts from the rep.  As long as the physician makes their choices independently of the gifts I do not believe anything unethical is occurring

Provide an argument for this based on the current ethical fabric of society and what is accepted in the organizations involved.

 

Although, I do not believe it is unethical to accept a gift from a person who you are doing business with.  I believe that organizations and business should set rules and standards for questions like this, so there is no grey area for given situations.  Most, organizations / business have rules like this in place with specific guidelines, or simply bold rules that outlaw accepting any kind of gift at all.  I looked up this topic in the United States Department of Justice for officials in the Executive Branch.  The rules for accepting gifts are stated below from the USDOJ website.  I believe that the any reputable organization would have guidelines like this in place.

 

A Federal employee may not accept gifts from any person or organization that --

• Seeks official action by the employee's agency
• Does business or seeks to do business with the employee's agency
• Conducts activities regulated by the employee's agency
• Has interests that may be substantially affected by performance or nonperformance of the employee's official duties
• Is an organization a majority of whose members are described above; or
• Gives the gift because of the employee's official position.

 

Ethics

Post an ethical code/statement for your career field of interest that has been developed by a professional organization in your field.

Soldier, servant of the nation, leader of character, and member of a time-honored profession.

Army Values -

Loyalty
Discipline
Respect
Selfless Service
Honor
Integrity
Personal Courage

Post this code/statement for the following countries: USA, India, China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Isreal

Chinese Naval Academy-

In general, our military ethics education promotion strategy is more like a bottom-up research oriented instead of a top-down working strategy. That means we are going to build up the common consensus from a small group research scale to an across institutes research scale through (1) from the build up of the assessment tools to the promotion of the ethics course instead of developing an ethics course directly, (2) from the teaching of professional ethics concepts in science and engineering course to facilitate a stand along course, (3) from referring the prototype of the western military ethics course development to develop our own military ethics course, and (4) dividing the research topics of the military professional ethics into: leadership, engineering ethics, administrative ethics, educational ethics, and try to integrate them into a holistic military ethics course content.

Israel -

 Questions relating to morality in military conduct are so central in Israel that, for some experts, the IDF is the world’s “most moral armed force”. While it is difficult to evaluate the reality of this phenomenon in the field, this reputation is based on a deep, undeniable preoccupation with the ethical dimensions of the use of force, a preoccupation that can be considered an historical political choice by the Zionist leadership even before the establishment of the State.


Saudi Arabia -

The Islamic legal principles of international law were mainly based on Qur'an and the Sunnah of Muhammad, who gave various injunctions to his forces and adopted practices toward the conduct of war. The most important of these were summarized by Muhammad's successor and close companion, Abu Bakr, in the form of ten rules for the Muslim army:

Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone

 Thailand -

5 Diversity Quotes from my field

Leader commitment at all levels is a critical factor in the success of diversity initiatives. Ensuring that our leadership is continually educated and trained to support the Army's diversity initiatives will serve to enhance the Army's 21st-Century mission readiness agenda.

Competition for talent requires that the Army reach out and embrace an increasingly diverse American population. An open and inclusive environment is critical to attracting, developing and retaining employees to serve as Soldiers and Civilians in the Army. Attracting and retaining the Nation's diverse talent can be achieved through a comprehensive talent management strategy.

The Army has a world-class training and education structure, and is recognized globally for highly successful training. Persistent conflict and a dynamic, uncertain operational environment require that Army leadership, throughout the Force, be versatile in managing many cultures, experiences and other backgrounds under challenging conditions.

An objective for the Army is to develop a diverse workforce with the right skills and abilities, who are committed to achieving the mission in an environment of transition and war. Maintaining an inclusive environment throughout the Army will favorably impact recruiting, retention and mission accomplishment.

There is only one color in the United States Army, and that color is green.

Four of my comments are from the United States Army's goals for Army Diversity and Strength.  The fifth goal is one that I have heard over the years of taking diversity classes, while being in the Army.  These goals are all very similar in there objective to understand and adapt to the changes in America's views and out look on diversity.  The quotes (goals) are slightly different, because they all explain the benefits of understanding and accepting diversity within the Armed forces.  Some are aimed at how talented and different many demographics are, and how they can strength the entire Army by being accepted and incorporated.  Other's speak of how accepting diversity needs to be Incorporated at the top and go all the way down the line to the newest soldier joining the Army.  If these goals can be accomplished the entire Army would be stronger as a whole, and completing whatever mission is assigned would be a much easier task if diversity was accepted.  The last quote is probably the most different, because it is very broad and comes from the soldiers within the Army.  I believe that it is the most important though, and fits my beliefs the closest.  The statement, there is only one color and that color is green is a very strong one and encourages soldiers to realize that we are all in it together no matter what your color, religion, sexual preference, or beliefs are.  I personally would not care at all if I was fighting beside a homosexual Muslim who prayed to Allah daily and skype chatted with his boyfriend all night long.  As soon as someone puts on the uniform they are as equal to me as a Catholic boyscout who loves George Bush, country music, and Miller lite.  Missions and goals cannot be completed if everyone does not feel as if they are on an equal playing field, and I fully accept diversity as should everyone in the United States Army.

Diversity

Talk about what diversity means to you. And explain how valuing and championing diversity will help you in your career.

Diversity to me means many different things.  In the sense of my career I believe that if I make myself a more diverse person with many different skill sets as well as different experiences I will have more success in my chosen career.  If I just leave Stout with a piece of paper saying I can get A's and B's in a classroom setting that doesn't really set me apart from anyone else.  If I can get myself involved with different experiences and opportunities to learn new skills I will be a much more diverse and well rounded individual.  If I were in the shoes of an employer and two new UW-Stout graduates came to me looking for a job, and one student had a 4.0 with no experience and another had a 3.5 and a ton of work or research experience.  I think I would feel much more comfortable hiring the one with a worse GPA, but a greater amount of work experience. 

More importantly I think that diversifying myself with different people in the world will help me in my career.  Many people think of this as studying abroad to diversify themselves with different parts and people in the world.  I don't really agree with that really diversifying someone with the people in the World.  If you study abroad in England you are basically diversifying yourself with an American who has an accent who happens to live across an ocean and is surrounded by old churches.  A person can get a much better experience with diversity by talking to a single mother in Menomonie who barely has enough money to feed her children or heat there home.  I have lived for short periods of time throughout many parts of the United States, which may have slightly diversified me.  I have been to Ireland, Amsterdam, and Germany.  I didn't meet many people or see many sights, but again there was not a great deal of learning experience by being in these places.  I've also worked side by side with Iraqi civilians for a year.  I will never again learn more about what the World is actually about for the rest of my life.  One of our interpreters would tell us daily how lucky we are just to live in America.  I remember him telling me one time "If you think the World is a good place, you either haven't seen the real World, or you are just suppressing the truth to make yourself feel better".  He couldn't speak perfect English, but that was basically what he was trying to tell me.  I don't think I fall into his first category, because I believe to "see" the real world you have to live it and I only saw it.  I ashamedly fall into the second category, because I suppress what I know about the World to make myself feel more comfortable.  The World is very different than it is at home, and the people are as well.  I believe I know how diverse the World is, and try to learn and strength myself through my experiences.  I accepted diversity and aspire to see people for who they are.

Main Project Decision

Today in class we had to make the decision on whether we wanted to do the wood or solar projects.  I believe that I am going to choose the Solar project, because I don't know much about solar energy.  It has always interested me and this would be a good time to learn more about this topic in a group setting.

CO2 paper presentations

On Friday and Monday all six groups presented their cases for either supporting the CO2 paper or opposing its view points.  The criteria discussed in class was references and scientific methods.  Some of the strengths of these criteria were that they were very objective and didn't leave a lot of room for speculation.  A weakness of the criteria were that they were very broad, and it was very hard to narrow the information down.  Are group seemed to be well organized and managed between the five of us.  We fairly divided up the work load and all coloaborated to make our power point presentation.  There wasn't much that I can think of that didn't go well in terms of managing the group, dividing the work, and combining out thoughts.  My personal ethics were not an issue in this presentation.  I do not have a strong feeling to either side of the argument I was just fighting on the side I was put on.  All of the groups seemed to stay on task and present only these two criteria with out going off task.  I personally thought are presentation went quite well.  We were a group supporting the paper, but I really liked group 3's presentation against the paper.  They had many valid arguments, and exclusively presented scientific methods and reference flaws.  At the end of class morning we voted on whether we believed the paper was still valid and which group won.  The results of our vote was quite interesting.  There were many people who had switched votes for yes or no on the papers validity and which group won.  I thought it would be an equal amount in each category, but several people choose yes or no for if they thought the paper was still valid.  And there response for who won was opposite.  Overall, the class was on the "no" side of the argument, which seems like a good decision for the global environment.  I don't believe or disbelieve global warming, but I think if the world was a little more resourceful and "greenier" it wouldn't be a bad thing.

I believe the statement "what we do in the US, soon will not matter" means that we will eventually hit the point of no return and won't be able to go back.  If we reach a point where there is no returning then it will not matter what we do after that point.

The statement "what we do as individuals matters" to me means that even though the small things that you do as a individual hold great power.  When individual acts are combined together into a whole population the impact is magnified to an amount that an individual may not be able to see.