Is what is Ethical always right?
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Grimmerick
Posts: 3,331 Member
So I happen to love Frasier and my favorite line of any TV show ever is in it. The quick of it is basically this. Frasiers dad is trying to convince Frasier that it's ok to lie in court when it is morally right. His example was this, When Frasiers dad was a cop he was arresting someone that they saw shoot somebody and the guy slipped out of his grasp and attacked an officer so they didn't get a chance to finish reading him his rights. Now this guy has been in and out of jail so much he could have read you his rights. So in court they ask him if he read him his right in full and if Martin(frasiers dad) says no then the guy walks. So Martin lied and said yes I read him his rights in full. Now for my favorite line 
He said "Now you might think that I did an unethical thing but there isn't a doubt in my mind that I did the right thing." So are you on Martin's side or do you think he was just plain wrong for lying on the stand?
He said "Now you might think that I did an unethical thing but there isn't a doubt in my mind that I did the right thing." So are you on Martin's side or do you think he was just plain wrong for lying on the stand? 0
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I don't know how to answer this. Part of me says no, lying is a sin therefor it it wrong, the other part says even in the Bible Rahab was considered blessed for helping the deciples (I think they were deciples) escape from the spies by lying so....0
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Is it ethical to make a false statement? I don't think the end should justify the means.0
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This one is difficult for me because I trust myself to do the right thing, even if the law says it isn't right. In my mind the law is cut and dried because it has to be but everything these days relies so much on circumstances. For me I couldn't look at that situation the way the law does and let him go because it is very obvious that he was wrong and should go to jail, it shouldn't matter if he didn't get read his rights in full, he has been arrested before and it's obvious that he knows what he did was wrong. Therefore I have to say I would lie too. But I also understand that not everyone has the same opinion about what is right, therefore we have to have cut and dried laws.......................still it doesn't sit well with me.0
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I can't stand to hear of cases where a criminal got off because of a technicality! However, in my mind, that criminal isn't worth me compromising my own ethics.0
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I wouldn't have lied in this case. Not worth me being charge with perjury.
But I also think that a career criminal is going to eff up again and he'll land himself in jail eventually.0 -
I would tell the truth. If the cop screwed up, that is really the cops fault.0
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