The right choice. Two approaches to determining right and wrong.

What if your superior sent you on a recruiting trip and told you to misrepresent the institution, if necessary, to get more nursing staff? What would you do? Finding ways to do what is right is a challenge. But determining what is right is a prior and often a more difficult task, involving a choice of ethical perspectives. One perspective is utilitarianism--a form of consequentialism, whereby acts are right or wrong depending on their consequences. A second ethical approach is a respect-for-persons position, a form of deontology which holds that we have a duty to refrain from certain acts that are inherently disrespectful of persons. The utilitarian way to determine right from wrong is to look at an action's implications for people's happiness or unhappiness. Lies might be justified on a case-by-case basis if they tend to produce more happiness than any other option. An ethical alternative is a respect-for-persons view. Three broad tests can be applied to judge whether an action is respectful of persons: the tests of autonomy, promise keeping, and reciprocity.