CIA Ethical Dilemmas

Introduction

To analyze the ethical components of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) use of a false vaccination program to obtain information, one can use the four levels of moral discourse outlined in Robert M. Veatch’s The Basics of Bioethics. Below I outline a relativist belief that when working through the various levels of moral discourse, one can justify the CIA’s actions as ethical depending on the source of ethics used; using principles of bioethics, we see that the CIA’s actions were unethical, but when considering other principles or virtues, then the CIA’s actions may be considered ethical.

1. Casuistry

As noted by Veatch, the lowest level of moral discourse is casuistry; using similar cases as a basis to determine ethics, we

With normative ethics in mind, the first question we can ask, as proposed by Veatch under “action theory”, is “what principles make actions morally right?” (5). Without considering the CIA’s motivations, a principle involved in their actions is beneficence, assuming that the Hepatitis B vaccination was actually administered and did benefit some individuals. We also see principles of justice and nonmaleficence, assuming that the action led to the discovery of the location of Osama bin Laden and increasing security interests in the United States. However, there are principles that make the CIA’s action unethical; this would include lack of respect for autonomy since there was lack of informed consent and maleficence since the action itself produced some bad consequences in addition to good consequences. The “value theory” described by Veatch looks at whether good consequences came out of the actions of the CIA. On the one hand, the CIA’s actions were unethical when looking at the unintended consequence of damaging the reputation of legitimate vaccinators and thereby preventing full eradication of polio in Pakistan that endangers children’s lives (Robison). On the other hand, one might argue that the action taken by the CIA may have led to the discovery of Osama bin Laden, promoting the virtue of justice and possibly increasing security by preventing future action by Osama bin Laden that compromised also individual lives. Finally in “virtue theory”, the CIA may be seen as unethical in character for being dishonest and lacking respect for dignity of man by not providing full disclosure about the intent of the vaccinations given. At the same time, the character of the CIA might fall under the secular Homeric virtues of “cunning”, “hatred of enemies” and “skill”,