Reflection Of The Ethical Dilemma

The ethical dilemma that Sarah finds herself engulfed in has many different ethical solutions depending on which ethical theory is being applied. I believe that a great ethical theory to apply in this certain situation would be Joseph Fletcher’s situational ethics. Fletcher states that “we must let go of the crutches of a system” and look at the specific situation being dealt with. He believes that the only unbreakable principle is love and that all other principles are merely guidelines. Therefore, I believe that Fletcher would advise Sarah to lie on her resume in order to keep her job. Fletcher believes that “it is better to sin bravely than to be too prideful or to hide behind systems.” No matter how her decision may affect her co-workers or

Previously, I had no knowledge of any ethical theories and therefore had a hard time justifying why Sarah should lie on her resume. Instead, I had a “gut feeling” that it was best for her to lie and I justified that by saying that since everybody in her company already agreed to lie on their resumes, the system is corrupt and there is no problem with Sarah lying on hers. Having no sense of what morality and ethics truly is, I was unable to fully understand Sarah’s dilemma and rather acted on instinct instead of carefully examining the situation. I still agree with my logic that if she lies on her resume, the worst possible outcome for her would be getting sent back to her home country. Even though my advice for Sarah to lie on her resume remained the same, I now have an ethical justification to back up why she should. By a good base understanding of ethics, I feel that my argument is much stronger now than it was at the beginning of the semester. Therefore, if I were to be presented with a counterargument, I would be able to defend my opinion and use what I have learned from our readings to do