Ethics

How would you define what’s right and what’s wrong?

For as long as I can remember, the adults, the schools and the society in general, had constantly been drilling me with all these morally-righteous tales and stories. But during the course of growing up, I realized that right and wrong is nothing like black and white, it is never so clear cut, it can never be that simple. Most of the time, it is just a varying degree of grays.

The lecturer started her lecture with a question, “What is ethics?” And people started voicing out their answers, “right and wrong”, “moral values”, “social values” and what not. But it was a tough question for me. Ethics, to me, is a way of life, and life, is never as simple as that two or three words could sum up to be.

Ethics is in play in many different levels – political, social and educational. Many intriguing questions were thrown our way, and there were only a handful in which we could semi-confidently answer. This particular question caught the most of my attention, “Is it right to kill a man who stole medicines for his dying wife?” Which reminded me of Denzel Washington in the movie John Q. John bore a child with a heart disease and was waiting for a necessary heart transplant to save this kid’s life. In order to save his dying son, his son have to be placed on the waiting list. However, the hospital refuses to list his son for the list because John was unable to come up with the large sum of money needed for this procedure. John was desperate. He took the hospital hostage and forced the doctor to give his dying son a heart transplant. From beginning to end, I had never blamed him. If I were to be in his situation, I would possibly do the same thing, despite it being “wrong”. After all, this is a sad realistic world we’re living in.

John Q Trailer