Week 1 Journal - Should governors have issued closure orders

Week 1 Journal

All questions are worth 20 points: 

1. Should governors have issued closure orders for all but essential businesses in the early spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Be sure to complete an ethical analysis that includes the following steps: identify the facts, identify the values and concepts, and identify dilemmas and resolve them.

2. You are on a lifeboat along with four others. You have enough food and water to keep only four people alive for the several weeks you expect to be adrift until you float into a shipping lane and can be discovered and rescued. You will all parish if the five of you consume all the food and water. There is the suggestion that one of you should die so the other four can live.                  -----Would you volunteer to commit suicide? Would you vote to have one go overboard if you choose by straws? Would you vote to throw overboard the weakest and least healthy of the five?                                                                                                                                                            --If you were on a jury judging the behavior of four who did murder a fifth to stay alive, would you acquit them or convict them of murder?                                                                                         -- Would your answer be different if the murdered victim were your son or daughter?

3. How do psychological theories attempt to explain individual differences in behavior? What do you believe are some cultural and societal influences on ethical behavior?

4. Review and explain the factors that have been shown to sometimes lead to wrongful convictions. How does the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Shinn v. Ramirez factor into this equation? Do you agree with the Courts 6-3 decision?

5.Research/Review the case of Detective Russell Poole and the LAPD. Identify and discuss the ethical systems represented by the actions of the detective.