Care Based Ethical Reasoning

Roberta Liebler, Ph.D.

Dana MazzucaMaggie Rouman

Mike Quinn

LLS 465 Engaging in Ethical Reasoning

Agenda

Today we will explain the ethics of care and how people apply this when making moral decisions.

Baby M CaseThomas Kilmann – 6 StagesLawrence Kohlberg - Heinz DilemmaCarol Gilligan – Gender DifferencesDefine Ethics of CareBaby M CaseConclusion

Baby M Case Study

Lawrence Kohlberg

Do Women and Men Think Differently about Ethics?

Lawrence Kohlberg

Six Stages of Moral Development

Heinz’s Dilemma

Used in studying moral development in children

Presented to an 11-year old boy named Jake-Heinz should steal the drug

Presented to 11-year old girl named Amy-Hesitant and Evasive

Kohlberg Dilemmas

Lawrence Kohlberg uses the following moral dilemma to study the moral development of children.

Six Stages – Three Levels:

1.Punishment and obedience orientation.2.Instrumental relativist orientation.3.Interpersonal concordance (good boy-nice girl) orientation.4.Orientation toward authority (law and order)5.Social-contract orientation.6.Universal ethical principle orientation.

The Dilemma

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer.

One drug that doctors thought might save her.

Drug was expensive – Cost $400, Charged $4000 (10 times the cost).

Husband, Heinz could not afford and asked druggist to sell it cheaper – or let him pay later.

Druggist said , “No, I discovered the drug and I am going to make money from it.”

The Dilemma

Heinz tried every legal means.

Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.

Key Questions:The issue here is that Heinz wants to save his wife even if it means doing something that is universally ethically wrong – stealing.

This takes place in Europe.

Three people are being influenced: The wife who can die without this drug.The husband that wants to save her.The druggist who is overcharging for

the life saving medicine.

Different Values Reflected

The HusbandValues of compassion for his wife.

Value of reason – with druggist.

Loyalty to his wife.

Acting in care-based way.

Golden rule – treat others.

Dilemma - stealing is ethically wrong.

The Druggist

Has a right to make money.

Druggist discovered the drug.

Overcharging for the medicine.

Not willing to work with Heinz on payment methods,

Justice vs. Mercy Moral Paradigm

The druggist is not playing any favorites; he is staying impartial to a very heart wrenching situation.

Heinz is acting in the mercy based way; he has love beyond restriction, even if that means violating the law.

Questions to ask yourself:

Should Heinz steal the drug?Is it actually right or wrong for him to steal the drug?If Heinz doesn’t love his wife, should he steal the drug for her? Does it make a difference in what Heinz should do whether or not he loves his wife?Suppose the person dying is not his wife but a stranger. Should Heinz steal the drug for the stranger?

Questions to ask yourself:

Suppose it’s a pet animal he loves. Should Heinz save the pet animal?Is it important for people to do everything they can to save another’s life?Is it against the law for Heinz to steal? Does that make it morally wrong?Should people try to do everything they can to obey the law?

Questions to ask yourself:

In thinking back over the dilemma, what would you say is the most responsible thing for Heinz to do?

Carol Gilligan

Justice vs. CareGilligan’s Objection – Kohlberg’s central idea was flawed.

Heinz Dilemma:11-year old boy named Jake

“Because the druggist can get a thousand dollars later.”

“Because people are all different and so you couldn’t get Heinz’s wife again.”

Jake appeals to impersonal principles “For one thing, a human life is worth more than money.”

Signs of Justice Based Moral Development

Justice vs. Care11-year old girl named Amy

“I think there might be other ways besides stealing it – make a loan or borrow.”

“He really shouldn’t steal the drug-but his wife shouldn’t die either.”

“So they really should talk about it and find some other way to make the money.”

Amy appeals to Care principles “For one thing, a human life is worth more than money.”

Signs of Care Based Moral Development

Carol Gilligan's Theories

Traditional Theories are biased against women's because they were constructed and tested based upon the experience of men.

Centers around how people grow in their concepts of responsibility, and what it means to care.

Care first as a selfish concept, followed by conformity to traditional ideal of feminine unselfishness, and lastly as a universal ethic.

Ethic of care was a moral construct separate from that of justice – moral development needed to include justice and care.

Do Women and Men Think Differently about Ethics?Gilligan’s Objection – Kohlberg’s central idea was flawed.

Suggests that women’s basic moral orientation is one of caring: “taking care” of others in a personal way, not just being concerned for the humanity in general.

“Caring, empathy, feeling with others, being sensitive to each other’s feelings, all may be better guides to what morality requires in actual contexts than may abstract rule of reason, or rational calculation, or at least they may be necessary components of an adequate morality” (p. 150).

Implications for Ethical TheoryMen’s Moral Theory Emphasize:Impersonal dutyContractsBalancing of competing interestsCalculation of costs and benefits

Women’s Moral Theory Emphasize:Friends and familyBargaining and calculating play a smaller roleLove and caring dominate

Research has shown that in the majority of studies showing gender differences, it is clear that both genders use both care and justice. There is no support for pure justice or pure care.

Research has also shown that when participants describe a personal dilemma, there is a tendency to support the orientation to care versus an impersonal dilemma where there where the responses tend to be justice based.

Gilligan’s description of how men and women mature in their morality integrate both justice and care into their moral perspective.

As one matures, both genders use a combination of justice and care.

Ethics of Care Today

“To be loving, loyal, and dependable is to be a certain kind of person, which is very different from impartially ‘doing your duty’” Feminism and the ethics of care, from The Elements of Moral Philosophy. Rachels (2010, p. 156).

Ethics of Care Approach

“The ethics of care begins with a conception of moral life as a network of relationships with specific people, and it sees ‘living well’ as caring for those people, attending to their needs, and maintain their trust”Feminism and the ethics of care, from The Elements of Moral Philosophy. Rachels (2010, p. 153).

Ethical Decision-Making

What is Care-Based?

Putting love for others first.Live by the golden rule – do to others what you would like them to do to you.Reversibility – test your actions by putting yourself in another’s shoes and imagine how it would feel if you were the recipient, rather than the perpetrator of your actions.So universal that it appears at the center of every one of the world’s great religious teachings.

Ethics of Care Approach

Assumes that ethics is formed in and through our relationships with others.Reflection on principles is secondary to the attentiveness and care with which we nurture relationships

(Ethics 101 DePaul University).

Ethics of Care Approach

An ethics of care approach is emphasized in those traditions which we see compassion as central to interpersonal flourishing

(Ethics 101 DePaul University).

Ethics of Care Approach

“What is ethical is that which fosters the flourishing of relationships and of each living being within a given relationship”

(Ethics 101 DePaul University).

Baby M Case Study

21st Century

Ethics of Care

Now on a path that is not considered part of the feminist movement

Has become Care-Based

To be a loving, loyal, and dependable is to be a certain kind of person, which is very different from impartially “doing your duty.”

The ethics of care, therefore, is best understood as one part of the ethics of virtue.