Unavoidable Ethical Choices Shaping Our Personal and National Character in the Coming YearThe growing sorrow with which we observe events in the Middle East tells us something about the human desire to behave ethically. Our compassion is invoked. We want the conflict to be resolved fairly. We want all parties to respect the human dignity of everyone. We want the United States to do all it can to promote justice there. But doing what is right in our complex world demands constant attention to the challenges of new ethical dilemmas. That is the focus of the Ethics Outlook, our first annual assessment of ethical choices that will shape our personal and national ethical character in the year ahead. Like all programs of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, the Ethics Outlook tries to define and highlight the moral dimensions of the crucial issues we face. Our goal is to raise questions and to suggest a process for public discourse and private reflection. We operate on the assumption that the United States and its individual citizens want to act ethically. Yet sometimes world events, scientific discoveries, and technological advances proceed at a pace that outruns our moral thinking. This agenda attempts to lay out some areas that require further deliberation and resolution. Obviously, our list is not exhaustive of all the issues on our national ethical agenda. Some issues have already been so thoroughly debated that we did not include them. Others are only now beginning to take shape. We are not predicting what ethical issues will actually dominate the headlines. Instead, we are offering the best thinking of Ethics Center staff, affiliated scholars from Santa Clara University, and members of our Advisory Board on the dilemmas we should be considering. These are, in our opinion, the underlying issues and choices that must be confronted-by each of us and by our nation. How we answer those questions will shape our own and our nation's moral character in the year to come. May 21, 2002 |
