The Ethics Behind Edward Snowden Case

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Recommended: Moral or ethical concerns with Edward Snowden

Spencer Halsman & Jordan Lucas
COMM 486
Case Study Paper
9/24/15
The Ethics Behind Edward Snowden Case Security is a vital asset for the advancement and stability of any country. Today exists a world where protection and security are getting progressively more necessary for the strength of a nation. It is believed the advances of technology allow boundless possibilities of protection, which has kept the United States safe for several years. With the media becoming more prevalent in today’s society, we as citizens know much more about threats to our nation than we had in previous years. A prime example of this knowledge is fairly due to a man named Edward Snowden. Snowden is a former National Security Agency (NSA) member who made headlines …show more content…

The ongoing investigation between Edward Snowden and the National Security Agency raised two important ethical challenges that have been under discussion. One ethical challenge is if Edward Snowden took the correct action for the situation. There are two ways of looking at this ethical challenge. Snowden can be considered correct for what he did to those whom do not want to be watched unknowingly by the government. On the other hand, Snowden can also be considered incorrect for the act he performed against his own country’s government. He leaked classified documents to the public because he, “in good conscience could not allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.” This statement from Snowden suggests that Snowden used “Ethics of Care” when he made his decision to leak NSA’s classified information. “Ethics of Care” by definition means having a care for other person(s). This type of ethical decision goes hand and hand with compassion. As Snowden lives the rest of his life out in Russia, it is extremely evident that he has great compassion for the decision he made because he ultimately left his normal …show more content…

According to Immanuel Kant, the ultimate right and wrong is simply what you believe is the best decision based on the reasons for why it is done. For example, the Edward Snowden case is ethical because Snowden believed he took the correct action by betraying the United States government because he was adamant that the NSA surveillance techniques were incorrect and abusive. This simply means that if you do what you think is best and is your duty to do then no matter the results as long as you did it for the right reasons you've done the right, ethical,

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