Personal Ethical Decision-Making Experience

During the summer vacation, after I graduated high school, I experienced ethical dilemma. I had hard time to make an ethical-decision and still, I feel guilty about my choice. I am going to discuss my ethical dilemma which involved weighing my needs to attend SUNY Old Westbury against my dad's needs for me to transfer college in my home country, South Korea, and stay with my mom when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am going to discuss whether my decision was ethical from the perspectives of Mill, Kant, and Gilligan. I also will discuss how the readings changed my perspectives about how I want to approach ethical decision-making.

In the First Year Experience: Ethics Of Engagement Class, I learned two kinds of ethical dilemma criteria. The first criteria is weighing my needs against the needs of someone else (Lecture Nov., 2013). The other criteria is weighing the needs of two group (Lecture Nov., 2013). According to the lecture, the first criteria applies to my ethical dilemma. Because my ethical dilemma has a conflict between my needs and my dad's needs.

About a year ago, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, it was not too late to got surgery. However, last summer vacation, my brother and I had to stay in America because of my brother's I-20 problem - the previous school that we attended in Connecticut made a mistake during the transfer process. This summer vacation was the first time that we met our mom and family after we heard about the bad news. It occurred the problem. She could not stand it any longer after she met us. Therefore, my father asked me and my brother to come back to Korea and stay with my mom - but she wanted us to stay in America. Both my brother and I came back to Ame...

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... He finds that "Moral judgments seem initially to confirm familiar notions about differences between the sexes, suggesting that the edge girls have on moral development during the early school years gives way at puberty with the ascendance of formal logical thought in boys (FYE: 306)". The readings, especially Kant's opinion, helped me feel more comfortable about my ethical dilemma and it also helped me to take responsibilities and to do my duties for my choice.

My ethical dilemma was the choices between stay with my mom, who has breast cancer, and stay in USA and get education. I chose to stay in the states, rather than transfer college in Korea and live with my mom. Some people would think that I am selfish and I had wrong decision. However, through the readings, I learned how can I make ethical decision-making and what should I do to justify my decision.