Just because something is legal, does it make it ethical?

Question

Understanding that this question is vague, explain in your own words, what this question means to you. What are the circumstances and what is your input?
Thanks.

Answer 1

It is legal to experiment on animals.
It is not ethical
It is legal to raise battery chickens
It is not ethical
It is legal for certain groups of professionals to charge exorbitant fees.
It is not ethical
It is legal for countries to kill their quota of whales.
It is not ethical.
How many do you want?

Answer 2

Ethics is in your belief. I may think something is ethical, but you don't. So it's a very difficult question to answer. I feel drug laws are unethical. i don't think the government has a right to dictate what we can and cannot put into our bodies. Other people feel the laws about drugs are ethical because of what drugs do to you. So, which is more relevant? Legal, of course. Not only because ethics change from person to person, but also because you get punished for violating a law. You don't go to jail for being unethical.

Answer 3

No! Ethics are often a deeper issue than mere legal requirements. I was once a witness to a situation where a question asked at a border crossing where the word "you", referring to all the passengers in the vehicle, was posed in the plural sense and answered by the driver in the singular sense, meaning only himself, and thus resulted in a foreign visitor, with a valid passport but previously forbidden entrance to the country by the previous shift's "difficult" border official, being allowed to enter. When the situation was detected...a telephone call preceded our arrival home....being a witness, I was called upon to give my version of how this "evasion" went down, and when I remarked that since the English language doesn't differentiate between singular or plural in the usage of the word "you", legally no problem existed. The immigration official's response was, "Legally, you are correct: ethically, you are wrong!" I had to agree with him, but because of the circumstances surrounding the original problem, I felt the "evasion" was justified. Just as an aside, the visitor was cleared, and it was acknowledged that the "difficult" border officer was "out of order".

Answer 4

Once upon a time slavery was legal, in this country and many others. I think it originated in Africa where the Egyptians made slaves of the Hebrews. Ethically speaking treating other humans as property is unethical.

Take todays Family Court System where one parent is so financially devastated that he often must make the choice between living in poverty and finding non declarable often illegal income. He/She is deprived of 80% of their children's childhood and as many states have gone to no fault divorce he/she has done nothing wrong, except have children with a person who stood on an altar and lied through their teeth before God. It is perfectly legal to financially devestate this person, but is it ethical. Well you decide.

Answer 5

There is a thin line between the law and ethics. Laws should be passed to help us to live freely without being discriminated against b/c of rac, color, creed or sexual orientation. And we should be free to make our own choices as long as our actions are not intended to hurt/infringe upon another human being. I will use abortion for example. Laws have been passed in certain states either for or against abortion rights. Some argue that this is a personal choice other say it should not be a personal choice b/c another person life is being affected. the biggest debate here is at what point during the fetal development to we claim it as being a life

Answer 6

I answered a question a few minutes ago about a career in the legal profession.I will give you basically what I said to her.

I am a Paralegal and have not worked in that profession for years due to the lack of ethics.I do not think its ethical to bill a client for a 4 hour lunch at a sports bar when the attorneys are drinking beer and shooting pool.I dont believe its ethical when and underling[a partner in the firm] found documentation to win the case and recieves no credit for his/her hard work.I hated the unethical aspects of the legal field.Thats why I got out of it.

Tho all this is legal,it goes against the code of eithics the attorneys are supposed to be sworn to..,but they are future politicians arent they?Look at John Edwards,he made his 30% off of his clients.Frickin 30% what a man.

Answer 7

To me this question means just because something is legal, does that means it's right to do it. My answer to that is absolutly not, though ethics have a lot to do with the individual who is determining whether or not it is ethical, but I would say some legal things, such as abortion, are not ethical.

Answer 8

No, just because something is legal it does not mean that it is ethical. If anything, ethics are relative, whereas laws are definite. For example, many would argue that ethnic cleansing is wrong, but it was a major part of Hitler's agenda in Nazi Germany.

Answer 9

This is an obvious no. No need to even ask the question.

The real question should be if it is ethical to do something illegal.

Is it legal to piss on the big sign in front of the Microsoft building....? No, of course it isn't, but is it ethical? Why wouldn't it be?

Answer 10

I use Alcohol for my example. Many people are down on drunk drivers (I admit this is correct, people should not drink and drive), but, how many that against drunk driving who are on legal medication that specifically states on the container "Do not drive while taking this medication, are driving??????
The circumstances I use are the people on medication that have had wrecks and people were hurt!!!!
Cell phone and makeup two other sources. My State has now passed a law that a person has to have a hands free device for their cell in the car. Not sure what they going to do about people applying makeup driving down the road.

Answer 11

No. Legal is what the law says is ok and ethical is moral standards, a standard of right. As we know as individuals moral standards can vary from individual to individual or from group to group.