What Factors Must Be Considered When Making Moral Decisions?

What factors must be considered when making moral decisions?

There are a variety of factors, which need to be considered when making moral decisions.

Everyday we have to make decisions, some are hard and some are easy. When we are talking about moral decisions we are talking about what actions are right and what are wrong. Morality is about actions and the consequences made by actions, motives and our human nature.

There are different ways in looking at making moral decisions, 2 main ethical systems are ‘teleology’ and ‘deontology’.

Teleological ethics is the belief that a moral decision is right if the outcome is good. In other words ‘ the ends justify the means’. A teleological theory maintains that the rightness or wrongness of an action is decided by the consequences that it produces. So even if someone does something bad, in order for the outcome to be good it is seen as ok. The action may not be good in itself but good by virtue of the result. For example if a girl wants an abortion due to the fact that she’s too young and too poor to look after the child, this is teleological. Because, although killing a foetus is a bad thing, she wouldn’t have been able to give her child a happy and stable life so therefore the outcome, which is that the girl is happy and a child isn’t suffering, is seen as the better thing to do.

The opposite of teleological ethics is deontological ethics. This is an absolutest point of view and they believe that you should do the right thing not for the sake of any goal, but simply because it is the right thing. The way you achieve something is just as important as the outcome itself.

For example they believe murder is wrong in every circumstance. For example in abortion, there is nothing to justify killing an unborn human no matter what the outcome, as even the very act of murder is evil.

Another example of making moral decisions is ‘The Universal Law’ - Moral laws are applied to all situations for all people. In the example of stealing, this suggests that it is always wrong regardless of the situation. Exceptions are not allowed, for example even if a thief in their defence was living in poverty and had to steal in order to live it is still wrong according to the principle and shouldn’t be done.

Also when talking about what is ‘right and wrong’ [ which is a definite

statement, whereby you can either be right or wrong, there is no inbetween] you can either have a ‘relativist’