There are various theories of ethics that define the conditions that must be met for an action to be considered either as morally right or wrong. This assignment will use two of these theories to analyse a newspaper article. The theories are teleological and deontological. The article to be analysed was obtained from the Toronto Sun. It describes a police officer who fails to carry out his duties well. As the article indicates, he leads a double life. He carries some of his duties well but breaks the law when the authorities are not monitoring him. Using both theories, the officer can be considered to be morally wrong. Here is the link of the article (https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/toronto-cop-who-led-double-life-sacked-by-police-tribunal)
The article chosen is titled “Toronto cop who led double life sacked by police tribunal.” The article was obtained from the Toronto sun. It was published on 5th June 2018. The article provides information about a traffic cop who was reluctant to carry out investigations in to two kidnappings. The cop is described as leading a double life. On one hand, he was a police officer who carried out his duties normally. On the other hand, he was involved in acts of misconduct and did it in a way that ensured that he was not caught. The court found him guilty of three charges. One he was guilty of insubordination. Secondly, he had breached the confidence that is entrusted to a police officer and thirdly he had engaged in two conducts that are discreditable. Preston concluded that his character was at a point where not even rehabilitation would help (Toronto sun, 2018). He was therefore deemed unqualified and should therefore leave his duties as a police officer. This happened on June 2018. This was not the first time that the officer was being charged. In the year 2007, he had been criminally charged with failure to observe the Police Act. He was however acquitted in 2012. The first kidnapping incident that was reported to him involved a man who worked in a marijuana growing farm. The man had reported to the officer that he had been kidnapped and mistreated. He added that the kidnapper only released him when his boss paid a ransom of two hundred thousand dollars. The officer (whose name is Floria) assured the man that he would investigate the incident. He further instructed the man to lie to the doctor that the bruises he had were as result of an accident. It turned out that the officer was lying for he never did any investigation. The Preston asserted that the officer told the man to lie to the doctor so that the police would not be informed about the incident. Just a month later, the very officer received information from one his acquittances that another kidnapping incident had occurred. The incident involved a couple (a man and a wife). The officer instructed the acquittance to take that information to another division. It is clear that that the officer did not want to carry out the investigation. Preston asserted that the second incidence of kidnapping would potentially have been asserted had the officer carried out investigations into the first case.
Teleological theory of ethics encompasses several ethics theories. There is one feature that characterizes all the theories of ethics that are under the umbrella of teleological theory. The feature is that all the theories are define actions to be morally right or wrong depending on the consequences or effects of the actions (Rae, 2018). This simply means that an action is concluded to be morally right if its consequences are positive. On the other hand, an action is morally wrong if the consequences are negative. This section is going to analyse the article from some aspects of the teleological theory.
One of the aspects of teleological theory is consequentialism. According this aspect, an action or a decision is considered to be morally right if its consequences are generally regarded to as positive or ones that generate some benefits (Peters, 2015). On the other hand, if the action leads to harm, then it is wrong. From this, we can judge the decision of the officer of failing to carry out investigation of the first incident as being morally wrong as it potentially facilitated the second kidnapping. Had some intervention been done after the first case was reported, it was probable that the kidnappers would have been arrested. The failure to carry out the investigation also had the likelihood of causing harm to members of the public. It is the role of the police to protect the public. Failing to investigate the incidents meant that the kidnappers would go on torturing citizens.
Another aspect of teleological theory is utilitarianism. This aspect asserts that the moral uprightness of an action should be judged by the overall benefits accrued (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2015). It emphasizes on maximizing happiness to the greatest number of people. This means that the moral uprightness of an action will be judged by the net effect of the consequences (Mill, 2016). According to Cahill (2017), if the net effect is positive, then the action is morally right. If the net effect is negative, then the action is wrong (Mulgan, 2014). Relating this to the article, we can find the actions of the officer as being morally wrong. This is because the failure to investigate did more harm than good. For instance, it potentially contributes to another incident of kidnapping which seemed worse than the first one (due to the rape). The failure to investigate also led to the prosecution of the officer. It was ruled that he cease his duties immediately for he was considered unfit for the job. It appears as if there were no positive consequences of his actions. The actions were therefore morally wrong.
Deontological theory was developed by Immanuel Kant who was a philosopher. It states that the morality of an action should be judged through application of rules. It follows a very simple principle of following set rules. The theory stipulates that people who follow set rules are morally right (Filip, Saheba, Wick and Amir, 2016). If they do, they are morally upright. If they fail to observe the rules or break them, then they are morally wrong. Unlike the teleological theory explained above, deontological theory does not focus on the consequences that come as a result of an action. The emphasis is following the set rules despite the consequences (Dewey, 2016). This means that whether the net consequences are positive or negative, an action is morally right if the set rules are observed. Although the theory has its own strengths, some argue that it can be relied on since it may promote certain negative consequences (Caiazza, 2017). Here is an example. Suppose a software engineer learns that a missile is about to be launched. The missile is intended to kill innocent people. The software engineering has the ability to hack the systems launching the missile and prevent killing innocent people. If deontological theory were to be applied, it would state that it is wrong to break in to a software system without permission. This is one of the professional code of ethics observed by software engineers (Moor, 2017). It would therefore be wrong for the engineer to hack. The consequence would be that innocent people lose their lives. Therefore, although the theory is simple to apply, it could have debilitating consequences at times. Let us now analyse the article using this theory. According to the professional code of ethics for police officers, it is wrong for an officer to deliberately fail to carry out his duties. The officer was therefore morally wrong for failing to carry out his duty. It is also considered wrong to lie. The officer was involved in the act of lying to times. First, he advised the man who reported the first case to lie to the doctors. Secondly, he lied to the court that he had conducted investigation yet he hadn’t. He was therefore morally wrong for lying. The other aspect was insubordination. The officer was charged with insubordination. Using the deontological theory, he was wrong.
Conclusion
The report was based on an article by the Toronto Sun. The article provides details about a police officer who was charged with insubordination and failure to carry out his duties. A man reported to him that he had been kidnapped and tortured. The officer promises the man that he will carry out investigation. He also instructs the man to lie to the doctor that that the bruises he had were as a result of an accident. He never investigates the incidence. A month later, another kidnapping incident is reported to him and he advises the reporter to go to another division. Using teleological ethics, the actions of the officer were wrong as they brought more harm than good. For instance, failure to investigate the first incident may have facilitated the second one. Applying deontological theory of ethics, the officer was wrong for nor carrying out his duties, lying and insubordination.
References
Cahill, L. S. (2017). Reframing Catholic Ethics: Is the Person an Integral and Adequate Starting Point (pp. 21-34). Routledge.
Caiazza, J. C. (2017). The Ethics of Cosmology: Natural Right and the Rediscovery of Design (12-23). Routledge.
Dewey, J. (2016). Ethics (pp. 17-21). Read Books Ltd.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases (pp. 21-37). Nelson Education.
Filip, I., Saheba, N., Wick, B., & Amir Radfar, M. D. (2016). Morality and ethical theories in the context of human behaviour (3-14). Routledge.
Meyers, C. (2018). Deontology. Communication and Media Ethics (pp. 23-43). Routledge.
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy (pp. 23-27). Routledge.
Moor, J. H. (2017). What is computer ethics? (pp. 34-42) Routledge.
Mulgan, T. (2014). Understanding utilitarianism (pp. 14-34). Routledge.
Peters, R. S. (2015). Ethics and Education (pp. 27-31). Routledge.
Rae, S. (2018). Moral choices: An introduction to ethics (pp. 2-9). Zondervan.
Toronto sun (2018). Toronto cop who led ‘double life’ sacked by police tribunal. (2018). Retrieved from https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/toronto-cop-who-led-double-life-sacked-by-police-tribunal
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