Ethics And Issues
ESSAY #4: ETHICS AND ISSUES
Learn, compare, collect the facts! In your work and in your research there must always be passion. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
INTRODUCTION
In addition to reflecting on our childhood and family lives (Essay #1), raising awareness on gender issues (Essay #2), and reacting to the community and cultural sites that give us a sense of place (Essay #3), we also find our identities shaped by the stances we take and the line of reasoning we construct on ethical issues we encounter on a daily basis such as abusive priests, doctor-assisted suicide, fetal tissue transplants, stem cell research, capital punishment, war profiteering, and the Patriot Act. An argumentative/persuasive research paper (Essay #4) is an ideal means of presenting such a stance and our reasoning behind it.
Essay #4 asks us to consider ethics: (1) appropriate rules for human behavior, (2) values such as right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable, and (3) obligations and duties concerning a variety of topics.
Furthermore, when we ask questions about these topics, we create issues. An issue is a question, problem, debate, or controversy. These issues can become research questions. Often we can word the issue with the word “should.” For example,
Should the mentally ill charged with murder be executed?
Should Texas vote to legalize doctor-assisted suicide?
Should the United States destroy poppy crop in Afghanistan?
Should the Iraq government evict the U. S. Company Blackwater?
Not all issues or research questions have to begin with should:
Does the United States use torture?
Are electronic voting machines a threat to democracy?
Has the “No Child Left Behind” program been a success or a failure?
After we examine the different sides of the issue, we take a stance (or position) and word that stance as an argumentative thesis. We support that thesis with our line of reasoning (reasons or confirming points) backed up with credible, documented...
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