Ethical Dilemma Paper: Plagiarism

Ethical Dilemma Paper: Plagiarism

Caroline Opyd

DeVry University

Principles of Ethics

Professor James Massey

October 31, 2015

Plagiarism is hardly viewed by most as an unlawful act; simply due to the ineffective circumstances that one is faced when found guilty. A student may receive a hypothetical slap on the wrist for plagiarizing a paper but that is only if the act is caught. Plagiarism is not taken seriously due to the ignorance of a person stealing another person’s work or idea. The ignorance is a result of one seeing no actual value to the work that has been stolen. If the person plagiarizing had their phone stolen from them, they would seek out justice to the one who stole their property and that is

In solving this dilemma using rules-based ethics, one must establish what is right or wrong. If one follows rules-based ethics, it would be understood that plagiarism is the wrong thing to do and the right thing to do would be to always produce work with complete originality or by always giving the proper recognition to whom it belongs through the use of citations. Using care-based ethics to solve this dilemma would be recognizing the dishonesty that comes with labeling another’s work as their own when plagiarizing. If one relied on care-based ethics, they would understand that they would not like someone else being able to take credit for their hard work, therefore would not do the same thing to someone else’s hard work. Each of these primary schools of ethics have the similarity of doing what is right and the differences based in their reasoning for choosing to do what is right. Rules- based ethics relies on choosing what is right based on the rules or law, where as care-based ethics relies more on moral obligation to the promote the greater good (Ruggiero,

As stated before, the two schools of ethics promote abiding by the law and showing moral obligation to doing what is right by other people (Ruggiero, 2011). Using rules-based ethics, one can look at each situation that may arise and know that doing what is right will always be the answer. This school of ethic promotes doing the right thing to remain in good standing and out of trouble. Care-based ethics promotes each individual’s moral obligation to do what is right by one another and with that it brings justice to society by making one do what is right by one another and not for sake of just