Based on the Teleological and Deontological approaches that we have studied in the previous chapters and with the understanding of human values we can apply the principles of Ethics in several areas.

In the following sections we will discuss various ethical issues in different areas:

Environmental Ethics
Ethics in technology such as in Biotechnology, AI etc.
Medical Ethics
Media Ethics etc.

Issues related to Business Ethics and Corporate Ethics and Ethics in Administration will be discussed in the later sections of this book.

Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics is the sense of right and wrong acts with respect to the environment. It emanates from the moral obligation of the human to protect the environment. As environment has the intrinsic value as well as human use value, protection of the environment is essential to the protection and development of humanity.

Since Ancient times humans started living with Nature. We respect the rights of the animal species and plant species.

The emergence of the New concept “Anthropocentrism”, is the belief that human being is the most important entity of this Universe. Then humans started exploiting nature and disturbing the Natural cycle. We are heading towards SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION.

Various ethical standards to be followed for the protection of the environment are as follows:

Sustainability: The environment and its resources must be used in such a manner that the future generations and weaker sections have enough to fulfil their genuine needs.

Compensation: those who degrade the environment, be it for bona fide reasons, must undertake measures to compensate for the degradation. Compensatory afforestation is one example for which the Government of India has recently enacted a law.
Conservation: It is essential to preserve nature and also to sustain the living beings that depend upon natural resources.
Equity: we must ensure that nature is used for the benefit of all in an equitable manner and not just for a privileged few.
Rights: All living beings have their own rights to life and existence. Other living beings are not meant for humans to consume or exploit. The earth belongs not just to human beings but to all earthly beings. Rights: All living beings have their own rights to life and existence. Other living beings are not meant for humans to consume or exploit. The earth belongs not just to human beings but to all earthly beings.
Mother nature: Environmentalists believe that ‘nature knows best’. We must treat it with respect otherwise it will respond with fury in order to restore the balance. For example, floods, cyclones, and landslides are seen as nature’s methods to restore the natural order.

Ethics in Media

Media from the value development point of view, are the most important medium through which we get influenced by our biases. The role of the mass media in influencing values is becoming increasingly very high. For Example,

In the TRP scam case, one of the television media resorted to fake TRP ratings by bribing subscribers.
Journalist crime investigation in the actor suicide case influencing the Polic investigation.

Media’s Positive role in shaping our values	Media’s Negative role in shaping our values
Eradicating stereotypes	Sensationlisation of News
Telecasting some of the inspiring stories across the world	partial news poses a risk to objectivity and impartiality
Coverage of important social issues. Example: Swachh Bharath Abhiyan	Issues of Media trial, Fake news.
Supporting some of the pro-people’s movements for Example: the RTI movement.	Spreading hatred and social disharmony by telecasting propaganda and violent content.

Media ethics include the following principles:

Independence:

Media channels (print electronic or digital) must be independent of the government and not have any political allegiance. The independence of the media not only leads to free speech and expression but also emboldens debate and dissent in democracy.

Ownership structure: Media entities must avoid concentrated ownership, especially in the hands of vested interests like politicians, businessmen and so on. Media ownership should be as publicly distributed as possible.
Editorial independence: Media outlets are commercial enterprises and need money to sustain themselves. For instance, governments might coerce newspapers against publishing criticism of the government in exchange for commercial advertisements from the government.

Objectivity:

Reports of media personnel should be based on facts and not personal bias or prejudice. Media must report all information from across the spectrum of opinion. For example, recently Qatari government-owned news channel Al-Jazeera was restricted from operating in Jammu and Kashmir by the Government of India for its biased coverage.

Avoiding Sensationalism: The media must avoid sensationalizing and scandalizing news for the purpose of marketing as it also leads to tensions, hyped emotions etc.
Honesty: It must be ensured that information is completely and accurately shared with the public. No sort of information shall be withheld even if goes against the interest of the media outlet itself.

Accountability:

The media should also account for its mistakes and take adequate action to remedy the wrongs. For instance, news programs must acknowledge errors in their reports and also bring out the correct information.

Responsibility: While reporting news, especially live reporting, media professionals must ensure that their coverage does not harm the larger public interest. While covering matters like terrorist attacks, wars etc. media should show reasonable responsibility towards national interest. For Example – Media coverage of the Mumbai attacks
Means to obtain information: Right means should be used to obtain information and privacy, dignity, trust etc. should be maintained. Methods like sting operations should be only used when they are found clearly in larger public interest and there should be clear guidelines for the matter.

Medical Ethics

Medical ethics is concerned with the obligations of the doctors and the hospital to the patient along with other health professionals and society.

The efforts to establish Ethics in Medical science have been made since ancient times. Hippocratic Oath (Greek) is one of the first such texts that demarcates the ethics of Medical practitioners.

Hippocratic oath

Hippocratic oath is a Greek medical text (5th Century BCE) that requires new doctors to swear an oath to uphold medical standards.

Teaching others the craft of medicine.
Not denying medical treatment.
Respecting confidentiality.
Minimising suffering if the cure is not possible.
Charging only for professional services

Medical Ethics in Ancient India

In India, Physicians took vows similar to the modern Hippocratic Oath:

The Charaka Samhita discouraged treatment for criminals or those using medicine for harmful purposes. Ethical duties included self-discipline, lifelong learning, and service without greed.
The Sushruta Samhita highlighted surgical ethics, emphasizing patient consent and proper training. These principles laid the foundation for ethical medical practice in India’s ancient healthcare system.

Principles of Medical Ethics

In the modern times, several new principles have been inculcated in the Medical Ethics:

Informed Consent: Patients should be provided complete information about the procedure they are about to undergo and consent should follow based on true and complete information. For instance, removing kidneys from patients without their consent is blatantly unethical.
Non-Attachment with the patient: It is prescribed by medical ethics that a doctor is better off not developing emotional attachment with a patient whom he has to scientifically treat. It enables a doctor to have objectivity, courage etc. On the other hand, one school of thought prescribes that a basic amount of compassion and devotion is rather needed towards patients.
Prescription: Doctors must ensure that they prescribe the most available, accessible, affordable and effective medicines to the patients, basically generic drugs instead of expensive patented drugs. For instance, the Government of India runs the Jan Aushadhi Yojana to increase the supply of generic medicines.
Patient identity: Professional ethics in medicine mandate doctors to treat a patient with honesty and commitment irrespective of the patient’s identity or background, even if the patient is a criminal.

Emerging issues in Medical ethics

Euthanasia:

Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a person’s life to relieve suffering, often in cases of terminal illness. In most of such cases, the lives of the people are extended due to the end-of-life support, with very little time for survival and often such patients are not even in a position to convey what they want for themselves.

End-of-life care:

When a person is either Terminally ill patients or in a Persistent vegetative state (PVS) (i.e. non-responsive) life–prolonging Interventions are required to keep a person alive. Such a situation occurs when the person is brain-dead or has zero chance of recovery.

Life-prolonging interventions include Feeding tubes, ventilators, CPR(Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) or even antibiotics.

Different societies have different ethical norms regarding when to introduce life support and when to withdraw it.

Euthanasia can be of two types – Active and Passive.

Passive Euthanasia

When the person suffering is living on life support, the life support is removed to allow the person to die peacefully.

Voluntary (with consent): This can happen in two ways:
1. Willing to die: When a person suffering is responding well, and is willing to end that suffering by dying.
2. There is a “living will”: When the person suffering is not responding or communicating in any way, but has a living will in which they have already mentioned clearly that if such a situation occurs, the life support should be withdrawn to end the suffering.
Non-voluntary (without consent): If the person on life-support reaches a vegetative state (i.e. stops responding) without signing a living will. In such a case others have to make a decision on this behalf.

Active Euthanasia

Active euthanasia is a controversial practice where death is deliberately caused by an act, such as administering a lethal injection, to end a patient’s suffering.

Is Euthanasia Right?

Ethical debates revolve around human dignity, autonomy, medical ethics, and the potential for misuse. The moral acceptability of euthanasia varies with place and time. It involves the serious ethical issue of whether it is right to end a human life deliberately in case of serious irreversible suffering.

We should the excellent ethical articles given in the Aruna Ramchandran Shanbaug Case, 2018.

Aruna Ramachandran Shanbaug Case, 2018

In 2018, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India upheld passive euthanasia and granted legal status to its advance directives, which will hold good until Parliament enacts legislation on the matter.

While private members have introduced bills, such as the Euthanasia (Regulation) Bill, 2019, these have not been passed into law. Consequently, passive euthanasia in India operates under judicial directives, pending formal legislative action.

The SC makes a distinction between passive euthanasia and active euthanasia:

Passive euthanasia: “Mere acceleration of inevitable conclusion”. Right to smoothen the dying process, where there is no hope of revival. He is on life-prolonging interventions; He is allowed to die in a natural course. A valid ‘Living will‘ facilitates it.
Active Euthanasia: Unlawful, as it is not natural.

Arguments for allowing Passive Euthanesia:

Philosophy: Art 21: Fundamental right to life and dignity: includes “right to die with dignity“.

Article 21: “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”

“Meaningful existence” includes a person’s right to self-determination and autonomy to decide his medical treatment.
Dignity is lost if a man is allowed or forced to undergo pain and suffering because of “unwarranted medical support”; “A state where treating physicians and the family members know fully well that the treatment is administered only to procrastinate the continuum of breath and the patient is not even aware that he is breathing.”
Liberty: All adults with the capacity to give consent “have the right to self-determination and autonomy”, and the right to refuse medical treatment is also encompassed in it.

Advance directive (Living Will)

A person, while in a competent state of mind, leaves written instructions on the sort of medical treatment that may or may not be administered in the event of her reaching a stage of terminal illness. This is known as the Living Will. It should clearly indicate the decision relating to the circumstances in which withholding or withdrawal of medical treatment can be resorted to. It should have a clause stating that the executor may revoke the instructions/authority at any time.

Storage: The document shall be recorded and preserved in the presence of two attesting witnesses and countersigned by the jurisdictional Judicial Magistrate of First Class (JMFC) appointed by the District judge.
Authorization: A guardian or close relative will be authorized to give consent to execute an advance directive. In case, permission to withdraw medical support is refused, it would be open to the “executor of the Advance directive” or his family members or the hospital staff to approach the HC.
Execution: Responsibility on the doctor to ascertain the genuineness and authenticity of the Living will of the terminally ill patient from the judicial magistrate, in whose custody the document is kept. Once satisfied that the Living Will needs to be acted upon, it is the doctor’s responsibility to convey to the guardian or close relative the medical condition, the availability of care & the consequences of alternative forms of treatment & consequences of remaining untreated.
Final approval by Medical Boards: The Physician or the hospital concerned has to then constitute a Medical Board consisting of the HOD of the treating department and at least three experts from the fields of general medicine, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, psychology or oncology with experience in critical care and standing experience of 20 years. They will have to visit the patient and release a preliminary opinion on whether or not to withdraw treatment as per the Living Will.

Abortion:

The act of abortion is highly debated with respect to its ethicality. Pro-life preachers claim that human life is sacrosanct in nature and parents should have no right to end it. On the other hand, pro-choice thinkers claim that parents must have the infallible right to choose and plan parenthood, which includes the right to abort an unwanted child.

Arguments in favour of Abortion

Teleological View:

Utilitarian View – If abortion improves the mother’s well-being (e.g., financial stability, mental health), it maximizes overall happiness.
Prevention of Suffering – If the fetus has severe abnormalities or the mother’s life is at risk, abortion prevents unnecessary suffering.
Societal Benefit – Reducing unwanted pregnancies can lower child neglect, economic burden, and overpopulation.

Deontological argument:

Women’s Autonomy – A woman has a moral right over her body and choices.
Ethical Duty of Care – If carrying the pregnancy harms the mother, abortion aligns with the duty to protect her.

Arguments Against Abortion:

Teleological View:

Sex-selective Abortion – Once abortion becomes acceptable in society, people often use it for acts like sex-selective abortion which skews the sex ratio and harms society.
Potential Life Lost – The fetus might have contributed positively to society, and its termination eliminates future possibilities.
Moral Precedent – Accepting abortion for convenience may lead to ethical relativism in other life-and-death matters.

Deontological Arguments against Abortion:

Sanctity of Life – Life is inherently valuable, and abortion violates the moral duty to preserve it.
Moral Absolutism – Killing is always wrong, regardless of circumstances.

Conclusion: Thus we want to give women the right over their bodies, and the right to control reproductive decisions, without undermining the larger interests of society such as sex-selective abortion. Thus, the abortion laws of India take the following pragmatic view:

Abortion in India

Abortion falls under ‘Offences Affecting the Human Body’, and provides that causing a miscarriage with or without consent for a purpose other than saving the life of the woman is punishable.

Punishment: up to 3 years on termination of pregnancy. But if a woman is quick with the child then up to 7 years

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 allows for aborting the pregnancy up to 12 weeks based on the opinion of one doctor, and up to 20 weeks based on the opinion of two doctors. This can happen only when:

Continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman,
Cause grave injury to her mental or physical health (such as rape & contraceptive failure),
In the case of foetal abnormalities.

Termination is also allowed at any point(beyond 20 weeks) during the pregnancy if there is an immediate necessity to save the woman’s life.

Ethics in Technology & Innovation

Growing innovations like automation, data management, artificial innovations, gene editing etc pose huge challenges to ethical practices.

Some of the areas where technology can be misused are:

Implications of alleged COWIN vaccination data leak
Tech giants Google & Facebook leaking important data
Automation and artificial intelligence able to control humans in future
Gene editing technologies

Problems Created by Technologies

While technology drives economic growth and efficiency, it also creates several economic challenges, including:

Job Displacement (Technological Unemployment) – Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) replace human labour, especially in manufacturing and routine jobs, leading to unemployment.
Widening Income Inequality – High-skilled workers benefit from technology, while low-skilled workers face stagnating wages or job losses, increasing income disparity.
Market Monopoly and Digital Divide – Tech giants dominate industries, reducing competition, while unequal access to technology widens the economic gap between regions and social groups.
Privacy and Security Risks – Data breaches and cybercrimes cause financial losses and erode consumer trust.
Dependency and Economic Disruptions – Overreliance on technology can lead to economic vulnerabilities, such as cyberattacks disrupting financial markets or supply chain failures.
Environmental Challenges – Most new technologies have a negative impact on the environment.
Runaway Technology –

Addressing these issues requires policies promoting reskilling, digital inclusivity, and ethical tech regulations.

However, a few things must be remembered.

Importance of Embracing New Technologies

Despite challenges, embracing new technologies is essential for the progress of any community, because it ensures:

Innovation and Competitiveness – Countries and businesses that adopt technology remain competitive in the global market. One who fails to adopt perishes.
Economic Growth and Productivity – Automation, AI, and digital tools enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and boost economic output.
New Job Creation and Skill Development – While some jobs are lost, new industries emerge, requiring reskilling and upskilling of the workforce.
Improved Quality of Life – Advancements in healthcare, communication, and infrastructure enhance human well-being.
Sustainability and Environmental Benefits – Green technologies, renewable energy, and efficient resource use help combat climate change.
Better Access to Services – Digital transformation improves access to education, banking, and government services, reducing inequality.

“We should not stop making progress in medicine because of the fear that it would take away the jobs of coffin-makers”.

Deontological basis for Allowing new technology

Respect for Autonomy – Individuals and businesses have the right to develop and use technology as long as they do not violate ethical principles or legal frameworks.
Protection of Rights – Technologies that safeguard fundamental rights, such as cybersecurity and medical AI, are morally justified as they uphold ethical duties toward society.
Obligation to Future Generations – Deontology upholds a duty to preserve and advance knowledge for future generations, making disruptive technologies a moral necessity.
Moral Duty to Innovate – Deontology emphasizes duty-based ethics. Societies and governments have a moral obligation to promote technological advancements that improve human lives, irrespective of consequences.
Universalizability Principle – If a rule allowing disruptive technology can be universally applied without contradiction, it is ethically justifiable. For example, permitting AI-driven automation aligns with the duty to enhance efficiency.
Fairness and Justice – A deontological approach supports equal access to innovation, ensuring fair opportunities in technological growth without discrimination.
Rule-based Ethical Consistency – Policies governing disruptive technologies should be based on consistent moral rules rather than outcomes, ensuring ethical integrity in governance.
Truth and Transparency – Honest research and open dissemination of technological advancements align with deontological principles of truthfulness and accountability.

Bio Ethics

This domain studies ethical issues in the field of human biology and biotechnology. The following issues are covered by bio-ethics:

Privacy: Biomedical studies and gathering of data must respect the privacy of individuals as they deal with private sensitive medical information about them. The medical status of people should not be revealed as it is an intrusion and also creates a chance of misuse. For instance, a person having a chronic life-threatening disease may not want to reveal that to another person.
Bio-piracy: Advanced countries and their innovators carry out exploration and gathering of biological resources (such as DNA, leaves, tissues etc) from developing countries in the tropical region (having higher biodiversity), for commercial purposes. Such use and exploitation of biological resources by an advanced country from a relatively backward country, profiteering out of it without sharing profits with the source country is called bio-piracy.
For example, the Nagoya Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity mandates signatory countries to ensure access and benefit sharing for fostering equality across geographies. We want the benefits of such technologies to be available to all. However, the US is not a signatory to this protocol.
Intellectual property rights: Every innovator should be entitled to the rights over their intellectual property due to the immense time and effort spent in developing the item. However, IPRs should strike a balance between the private interest of the innovator and the public interest of availability and affordability.
Cloning: Cloning is a highly advanced science that can be used on humans, animals, plants, microbes etc. Bio-medical ethics has accepted worldwide that cloning is a risky and unethical act, as it is artificially done. It will have serious repercussions on society, personal life and so on.
Gene editing: Gene editing alters the genes of a living being to achieve desired traits. There is an ethical stipulation that gene editing should only be used for therapeutic purposes or for human well-being. It is also claimed that human genes are God-given and hence, human beings should interfere with it minimally.
Clinical trials: Clinical trials carry out experiments on people by offering money. They can possibly harm the health of an individual but are necessary for public health and innovation. To balance the two concerns, there are ethical norms regarding informed consent, safety, human healthcare and so on.

Ethics in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is meant to augment or replace human intelligence. This creates several issues:

GPT Model: might be trained with the help of data that is biased against certain communities and countries. These biases can seep into the technology and everyone might consider them as the ‘truth’. Thus there is a need to have ethical standards to be followed in the artificial systems.

Systems should be built such that they are fair and inclusive for all. Impartial behaviour of the AI model without any discrimination should be our goal. Unfair models can create improper outcomes.

Difficulty in holding responsibility: Who is responsible if mistakes occur due to the fault of the AI? Is the creator of AI the user of the AI-based tool or the AI itself?

For example, if an accident that involves a driverless car takes place, who is responsible? The author of the AI, i.e. Tesla, or the person who bought that car?

For example, the AI model for face recognition identifies a person as a criminal incorrectly – this will lead to a loss of that person’s reputation and false criminal charges against the person.

Misuse of AI: For example, use of deepfakes have been used in wrongful impersonation. We need regulations to stop this and techniques to identify the fakes.
Issues of Copyright: Often AI is trained using real-world data which different organisations have put in a great amount of investments to create. For example, the daily content created by the news organisations is often used by the AI without permission.
Rights of AI: If a human-like intelligence is generated, it grows like human intelligence. Should we be willing to grant it rights if it demands it?

Further, What possible punishment can we design if a human-like intelligence falters?

Fear of Runaway Technology: Above all, should we even allow AI to develop uncontrollably? Should there be a norm, rule or law to limit our development?

For example, AI often communicate with each other in “gibber-lingo”, a language undetectable to use. Should we allow communication that we cannot understand?

Ensuring Ethics in AI

- Chalk out exact goals for ensuring fairness and inclusion so there is no pre-existing bias.
- Representative datasets should be used so that only a few societies are not over-represented in the AI data.
- Analyse performance in Real-world scenarios to bring out the problems.
- Identify Potential threats to the system and find solutions.

Learn and stay updated – to adapt and grow.

Handle data responsibly
Limit usage of sensitive data as much as possible.

Belechley Declaration

Cyber Ethics

Cyberethics is a branch of applied ethics that examines moral, legal, and social issues at the intersection of computer/information and communication technologies. This field is sometimes also referred to by phrases such as Internet ethics, computer ethics, and information ethics. Thus various stakeholders like netizens, government service providers etc should play important roles in maintaining high ethical standards in cyberspace as follows:

Obeying the law: Users of the internet must abide by the law of the land and not use the internet for illegal activities such as hacking, defrauding, stalking, harassing etc.
Intellectual property rights: Content created online is often protected by copyrights which must be respected by other users. This is essential for innovation and authenticity on the web.
Privacy: Despite the availability of modern technology like mass surveillance, spyware etc. users must respect each other’s privacy and dignity.
- Problems:
  - Data leakage, selling and storing without consent.
- Informed consent must be taken from users before their private information is obtained by online platforms.
- Security Standards
- Online stalking – > Criminal law better.
Free and open Internet: Governments, service providers and other stakeholders must ensure that the Internet remains open for all and free from any barriers. The recent demands for net neutrality aim to uphold this ethic of cyberspace.
Respect: Users are expected to show basic respect and courtesy in their behaviour online to provide a healthy and stable environment to all. Recent problems of trolling, abusing, shaming etc. highlight the importance of this ethic. Respect all other Internet users. Do not threaten, harass, stalk or abuse anyone.
Public decency: Since the internet is a public platform, users must ensure that their content is decent and appropriate for all audiences including children. Offensive content like pornography and brutality must be avoided.