Doing Ethics

Bob the Builder

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:50:00 +0000

I first heard of Bob the Builder stories from my youngest daughter, who as a medical student told me about a party with her friends that involved dressing up in working clothes and singing songs that everyone knew from the television show. These stories are designed to show children that happiness involves developing the virtues of industry and perseverance.

The show’s website includes this exuberant affirmation: “Bob the Builder knows that the fun is in getting it done! With his business partner Wendy and his original can-do crew: Scoop the digger, Muck the digger/dumper, Lofty the crane, Roley the steam roller, and Dizzy the cement mixer, Bob has been getting jobs done all over Bobsville and beyond, and no matter what the job, he always has the right tools—teamwork and a positive attitude!”

Of course, all this construction work involves using natural resources and digging up the earth. In this sense, Bob the Builder exemplifies the American myth that nature is there to be improved by our ingenuity and hard work. Until recently in this television program, there was no hint of environmental problems or of any related ethical issues, but that has changed.

The section of the website called The Builder’s Log now describes a new project in Sunflower Valley. To prevent a city from being built that would pollute the valley, Bob has devised “a plan that would fit in to the environment.” Moreover, while watching a recent episode of Bob the Builder with my young grandson, I learned that the three Rs now stand for environmental virtues—“reduce, reuse, and recycle.”

Ordinary care

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:13:00 +0000

When my dad at age 90 suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side and unable to swallow, but alert and able to talk, he chose to have his IV removed in order to let nature take its course. He said that he had lived a full life, was ready to die, and didn’t want to be kept alive by machines when his body couldn’t care for itself.

His death took four days. He was not on medication for pain, and by the second day he was unable to speak. By the third day he was unconscious. About thirty minutes before he died, his breathing slowed, with a long pause between each deep breath. I recited psalms and prayed for him, until he was still.

At his memorial service I shared with other family members and friends of my father that I was moved by the way my father faced death. He wasn’t afraid or depressed. He was grateful for his family and for the years he had lived, and he saw accepting his death as a way of expressing his gratitude for the gift of life.

In the university ethics class I teach, I mention my father’s death when we discuss health care, because it illustrates the right of a patient to withhold consent for medical treatment. In the 1990 Cruzan decision the US Supreme Court upheld this right, citing a “liberty interest” in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the common-law tradition supporting the right not to be touched by another person without consent or legal justification.

International law also supports the right of informed consent, which creates a duty for those providing health care to adequately inform patients of their condition, possible treatment, and their right to consent or decline treatment.

The story of my father’s death illustrates why Catholic moral teaching requires only health care that offers a reasonable hope of benefitting a patient and is not excessively expensive, painful, or inconvenient. This “ordinary” care is distinguished from “extraordinary” care. Catholic teaching supports using medication for a terminally ill patient to reduce suffering even if this may shorten the patient’s life. For medication is ordinary care and, if it hastens death, this unintended consequence does not outweigh the duty to reasonable means that are not excessively expensive to alleviate suffering.

My father was not Catholic, nor am I. But as a senior now, I support limiting health insurance to coverage for ordinary medical care, and I urge other seniors to do the same for the sake of the common good. We can help those who are younger overcome their fear of death by facing this fear ourselves. We should support health care as a human right for all, which is Catholic teaching and international law as well, but we should also affirm our right to decline medical treatment. And when treatment is very costly and offers only a short-term benefit, why not affirm life by accepting death?

With hope...Bob

Fair-minded words

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:35:00 +0000

President Obama's speech at Notre Dame's graduation included a call (and a pledge) for open hearts, open minds, and fair-minded words when we address our differences and look for ways of working together.

In that speech Obama reflected on his work as a community organizer in Chicago where he was "touched by the words and deeds of men and women" he worked with from many Catholic parishes. "I'd like to think," Obama said, that in our community service "we touched the hearts and minds of the neighborhood families whose lives we helped change. For this, I believe, is our highest calling."

Obama's fair-minded words at Notre Dame about the moral debate over abortion offer us a model for doing ethics. Finding common ground and making real progress in addressing moral issues and creating greater justice requires respect for those with whom we differ. And "fair-minded words" are one way that we manifest this respect.

With hope...Bob

Economic inequality

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:31:00 +0000

In an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post on March 2nd, E. J. Dionne Jr. argues that Obama is right to try to correct the growing economic inequality in the US. Dionne quotes Peter Orszag, Obama's budget director, who points out that: "Over the past two or three decades, the top 1 percent of Americans have experienced a dramatic increase from 10 percent to more than 20 percent in the share of national income that's accruing to them."

"The ethical measure of an economic policy," I argue in Doing Environmental Ethics, "is its contribution to the common good. This not only requires political decisions that protect the environment, but also economic policies that ensure a fair distribution of the economic benefits that are realized."

Obama's budget calls us to work for greater economic justice in the US.

With hope...Bob

Language matters

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:22:00 +0000

In Obama's recent interview with the Al Arabiya news network he said, "The language we use matters." This might be understood to mean simply that we should try to be as persuasive as possible in promoting our ideas. But in the context of this interview about relations between the US and Muslim nations, Obama is affirming a commitment to respecting others even when we may disagree with them.

In the language of ethics, virtues matter. We should be concerned not only with taking the right action, but also with how we are as we act. Are we being civil by listening carefully and trying to understand others? Are we expressing gratitude when those who do not agree with us are, nonetheless, civil?

This is doing ethics. Who you are, as well as what you do, matters, not merely to you, but to others.

With hope...Bob

Hard choices 2

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:48:00 +0000

In my first blog on hard choices I noted President Obama's assertion that the economic crisis wasn't simply the result of "greed and irresponsibility on the part of some," but a consequence of "our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."

Hans Morsbach, my brother-in-law and a successful businessman, responded with this comment: "Greed is a big part of the problem. The system allowed financial expert to collect commission on services of no value. Experts bundled mortgages of which they should have known that they were of less value than their label suggested. They did not care and just collected the service fee. When the bubble burst, they had their money and the taxpayers had to bail them out."

"Much of the blame rests with the SEC and Bush's failure to regulate. He preferred to think that no regulation was necessary as the free market would do it. He was wrong. Financial executives made millions (which are not recoverable) and the taxpayers pay the unearned income of the financial experts and also the shortfall of the value of mortgages mislabeled. The 'system' worked as the investment houses made money all along. It is like the Ponzi scheme which works smoothly until the market forces expose the problem."

I agree with Hans. Our economic system will not be responsible and just without effective regulation by the federal government. Ethics requires enforceable rules as well as encouragement and recognition of good conduct.

With hope...Bob

Renouncing torture

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Affirming that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” to combat terrorism, President Obama today signed executive orders that will end the CIA's secret overseas prisons, ban coercive interrogation methods, and close the Guantanamo detention camp within a year.

I applaud the President's commitment to the rule of law. A chapter in Doing Ethics in a Diverse World is devoted to the war against terrorism and explains that the right not to be tortured is a human right under international law. The chapter also presents character and consequential arguments against the use of torture.

So, what should we do with the "bad guys" now being held in secret CIA prisons and at Guantanamo? Apply the rule of law. A prisoner of war is protected by the Geneva Conventions as well as US law. Anyone detained for allegedly committing a crime should be presumed innocent and tried in a court of law.

With hope...Bob

Hard choices

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

In his inaugural address President Obama told us that the economic crisis wasn't simply the result of "greed and irresponsibility on the part of some," but a consequence of "our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."

He was talking about ethical choices. Doing what is right and being good persons even when it seems that we might profit by doing what is wrong, or when we want good government but are unwilling to pay the taxes necessary for government that works.

But accepting that we are part of the problem should give us hope, for it means that we are part of the solution. What we do, and who we are, matters.

For those who have visited this blog, I hope you will take a few moments and share your ideas about what we should do. For my take on how we might respond to climate change and our economic crisis, I invite you to look at Doing Environmental Ethics.

With hope...Bob

Embracing crisis

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:44:00 +0000

In his inaugural address this morning Barak Hussein Obama quoted these words of George Washington: "Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."

President Obama's call to renew the spirit of America is a call to an ethic of duty, virtue, and compassion. Rather than blame, we should build. Rather than giving up, we should give to others. Rather than worry, we should work harder for what is right.

How are we to embrace this great and difficult challenge? Each of us, in our own way.

Begin today and then share your beginning with others. No sincere effort is too small, too insignificant. You matter, and what you do matters. Each of us can do our part.

With hope...Bob

Gay love

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:11:00 +0000

Singer and musician Melissa Etheridge recently said about homosexuality that: "Love is all there is, and love is never wrong. Why should we be threatened by love?"

The subtitle of the chapter on "Sex" in Doing Ethics in a Diverse World is "Consent Plus What?" Love is a good answer, as long as by love we mean mutual respect and commitment and not only passion.

In the law we presently have a clash of rules. Marriage in most places is heterosexual by definition, but the human right of nondiscrimination weighs in favor of gay marriage if civil unions do not provide rights equal to marriage. In the US civil union laws in several states do not override federal laws, which do not recognize civil unions as creating rights equal to marriage.

Do our stories about character and relationships help to resolve this conflict of duties and rights? Melissa Etheridge seems to think so, and I agree. How about you?

Welcome

rtraer@gmail.com (Bob Traer) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Hi. I'm glad you found your way to this blog.

I explain my ethical approach in Doing Ethics in a Diverse World, written with Harlan Stelmach, and Doing Environmental Ethics. To read more about each, or to purchase either, click on the hyperlink.

Also, I invite you to visit my Doing Ethics website.

In this blog I want to share new ideas and learn from the comments of you and others who visit the blog. We face many tough moral issues, and how we respond matters. So, let's help each other figure out what to do and who to be.

I'll share some ideas here, but I hope you will share your thoughts as well.

With hope...Bob