Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Deontological ethics are the ethics of duty and obligations. Deontologists maintain that actions are either intrinsically right or wrong, regardless or the consequences, and that consequences indeed should not even enter in to the decision of how to behave. In fact, an individual who practices deontological ethics could completely believe in the virtues of the outcome of a particular behavior, but still believe that said behavior should not performed because the behavior itself is morally wrong (Kordig, 1973). It is the behavior that has “intrinsic value” (Roth, 1995); the intent behind the action is what matters, not the outcome of said action. Humans are rewarded or punished according to actions within our control, and it only our intent that we indeed have control over, not necessarily the consequences (Wofford College online, 1997). There are two types of deontological ethics: act deontology and rule deontology. Act deontology maintains that there are no firm ethical rules to be followed when making ethical decisions. Instead, decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, with each individual doing what he or she feels to be the right thing to do at the time. This paper, however, will focus on the mo