In the legal system and real world, people are faced with many decisions. (TALK ABOUT ETHICS AND STUFF AND USE DEFNITIONS FROM THE BOOK) (maybe talk about lying and consequentialism and formalism book) Most people probably don’t give a second thought or bat an eye as to the type of decision or situation they are making or are in. The first category probably thought about is legal or illegal and the second is ethical or unethical. Most people think that well if it’s illegal its unethical, and if it’s legal it is ethical and that’s the end of the story, but that is not always the case like in the Counsellor at law—sometimes these categories don’t overlap.
Ethical, illegal In the counselor at law, George Simon was faced with a decision as to
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He chose to make up an alibi for his client, so he would not go to jail because he believe the man would stay true to his word, and he did. What Simon did was extremely illegal and nearly resulted in his disbarment as a lawyer, but Simon knew it was ethical and the right thing to do because he knew it that this young man would indeed straighten up and that wasn’t fair for him to go to jail. At first thought, illegal yet ethical actions almost seem like an oxymoron, but when examine further reveal otherwise. Many people ask the questions such as how can it be illegal but the ethical “right” thing to do. Prescription drugs can fall into the realm of ethical but illegal. A drug prescribed to a person is legally only for that person, technically even in medical emergencies (citation 1). If someone is having an asthma attack with no inhaler and a third party has an inhaler prescribed for their asthma, it is technically illegal for the party to give the afflicted person their inhaler to use, but it is ethical. School nurses often talk about the difficult ethical and legal situations they could face if say a child has an allergic reaction, but he or she has no …show more content…
Picking up a boss’s lunch while at first glance may seem innocent at first, but if it’s not in the job’s description then it’s not honest. This is simply an abuse of power by an employee’s boss because the employee believes he or she has to do it in order to not get fired or get that raise, and the probably boss knows he can get away with it. It’s completely legal and completely unethical. Yelling at employees is completely legal, for there is no law against it, but while its legal, its unethical and people may or may not like the manager for it. Generally, an employer can fire an employee for any reason or no reason as long as it’s not because of race, gender, age, etc. If an employer doesn’t like an employee, they can terminate him or her. This may at first seem illegal, but it’s not; however, it’s highly unethical—there’s no law against being a jerk. Favoritism, an unethical yet legal act, is a probably an exceptionally widespread action in the business/work world. Giving a favorite employee slack on something while not giving others the same benefit would be seen employees as a “jerk move.” It’s unfair to those who work just as hard or even harder yet don’t receive the same treatment. Viewing things through a biblical perspective, a person would consider adultery highly unethical, as it is a