What’s an ethicist?

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An ethics specialist advises organizations and communities on ethical decisions, often using ethical codes. However, ethical codes vary between cultures, creating controversy. Ideology plays a central role in ethical judgment, leading to debates on moral implications. Ethicists explore correct judgments, asking rhetorical questions, and considering long-term implications.

An ethics specialist is someone who uses judgment to find the correct ethical decisions in a specific situation. Generally, ethics experts use the tradition of ethical codes to provide advice and guidance to organizations and communities from a position of authority. Most of the time, but not always, the concept is merged with that of moral principles. Some of the most important fields that use ethicists are the medical, legal, and religious communities. Many ethicists are considered to operate within the parameters of the philosophical discipline.

Ethical codes vary drastically between different cultures, making the role of an ethics specialist a controversial position among different groups. What may be morally and ethically feasible for one set of people may not be for another. This created a situation of cultural tension between certain factions of humanity. Furthermore, it also led to a rise in the late 20th and early 21st centuries of many important debates among theologians and legal historians, especially when it comes to topics such as the influence of religion on society.

Ideology plays a central role in the judgment of an ethicist. One of the principles that those who participate in ethical decisions and opinions often point to is human potential, not the situation faced by humanity on a daily basis. This generates conflict in the field, creating different dimensions of what the moral implications of the present have to do with the final situation people may find themselves in in the future. For example, when one nation invades another to free its people, the moral obligation at the time seems just. However, an ethics expert might point out that, in an ideal world, war would not be necessary and, in fact, could do more harm than good in the long run.

For much of human history, ethicists worked in some capacity to explore the correct judgments made by people. To accomplish this, many questions need to be asked, some of which are simply rhetorical. While most people do not question the ethically wrong Nazi-German position when committing genocide on the Jewish community in World War II, another question lies in whether it is ethical to use the medical research gained from the scientific experiments carried out on the victims themselves. The first question is basically an easy ethical choice, while the second can be trickier because of its long-term implications.




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