I am trying to write an article with the prompt: You are a professional with an

Question

I am trying to write an article with the prompt:

You are a professional with an office of your own, and you have a 5 year old son. Your daycare has called to say that it will not be able to take your son today, and there is no one else who can fill in. Since you cannot afford to take the day off, you want to keep your son in your office. He can entertain himself with videos and such. What are the ethics of taking your child to work in such circumstances?

We are supposed to use ethical theories from our book to defend our answer. I am having trouble deciding which of these theories most closely would pertain to this prompt, and how they do so.

Here is a list of several of the theories we have been given.

  I. Utilitarianism

        II. Rights/ Kantianism

        III. Justice/ Rawls

      IV. Natural Law/Divine Command

         V. Relativism

      VI. Virtue Ethics

      VII. Care Ethics

      VIII. A Practical Approach:

Reasonable Person Utilitarianism

Quasi-Kantianism

The Moral Paradigm Test

Explanation / Answer

Ethics of taking your child to work -

Let's understand all the theories first and then decide what theory is best applicable for the above problem.

1) Utilitarianism - It is a theory which tells that any morally good action which helps a lot people is always good. Any action or deed which helps to promote happiness in lot of people is Utilitarianism.

This theory is not applicable to your case.

2) Rights/Kantianism - This theory is also not applicable to the afore mentioned case.

Kantianism theory states that any good will which is intrinsically good is considered as good. To act in a good way, one must have a good will.

3) Justice/Rawls - This theory is also not applicable to the above case.

This theory revolves around the justice which is not necessary for us in this case. This case does not need any justice. Taking the child to work does not deal with justice, as there is no need to justify the act one is doing. This theory revolves This theory is not at all applicable.

4) Natural Law/ Divine command - This theory is also not applicable to your case.

Natural law/Divine command theory states that whatever happens in this universe does not happen with the god's will but happens with some will of reason.

5) Relativism - This theory is also not applicable.

This theory talks of the morality in terms of one's culture. Any action whether it is right or wrong depends on the culture of that society. Any action which is right in one culture ma not be right in an other.

6) Virtue Ethics - This theory is partly applicable to the aforementioned case.

This theory puts an emphasis on individual character of how a person is reacting to a situation rather than at ethical rules and duties, and the consequences of the actions.

I feel this theory is partly applicable because, a mother took her 5 year old son to work since she could not take day off from the work. In this situation she acted with her mind instead of looking at the ethics nor at the consequences of her actions.

7) Care Ethics - This theory is also applicable to the aforementioned problem.

This theory revolves around the family and the values. This theory is an normative ethical theory and is considered as one type of the virtue ethics.

In my opinion, both care ethics and virtue ethics theories are applicable to the aforementioned problem.

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