Blog
WHO IS TO BLAME FOR WAR CRIMES AND MORAL INJURY?
POSTED ON APRIL 3, 2020 BY PAUL WOODRUFF (DIRECTOR OF THE ETHICS PROJECT)
While serving in the army in Vietnam in 1969, waiting for a helicopter to take off, I asked the 18-year-old door-gunner whether he liked his job, and he told me that he did. He was a mischievous teenager who happened to have a 50-caliber machine gun in his hands and had been taught how to use it—but evidently not when to use it. Had he not been drafted into a war his mischief might have been less harmful, but as it was, his mischief was fatal to innocent people. If he is alive today, I imagine his dreams may be tormented by images of shattered homes, and children, and the bodies of the dead. He may well be among the morally injured.
MORAL INJURY
POSTED ON MARCH 26, 2020 BY ROBERT PRENTICE (FACULTY DIRECTOR OF ETHICS UNWRAPPED)
Do only those who have seen war-like conditions experience moral injury? It has been suggested (Talbot & Dean) that physicians who suffer from “burn out” are actually manifesting a form of moral injury that arises from continually being unable to provide high-quality care and healing in a broken health care system. Police officers, journalists, and first responders have also been thought vulnerable to moral injury when their ideals clash with what they are actually asked to do.
ETHICS AND THE REPUTATION OF THE TECH INDUSTRY
POSTED ON MARCH 3, 2020 BY REBECCA TAYLOR (UT ETHICS PROJECT INDUSTRY FELLOW)
What makes a system “good”? This may feel like an odd question for those of us working in the technology industry to ask ourselves. But we must. The fundamental question being asked of our industry is this: “what does ethical thinking require of the industry?” And, how do we do that without endangering our global competitiveness?
WELCOME TO THE ETHICS BLOG!
POSTED ON FEBRUARY 20, 2020 BY PAUL WOODRUFF (DIRECTOR OF THE ETHICS PROJECT)
Some time ago, a group of faculty members at UT from different departments set up The Ethics Project with two missions: to bring together the scholars at UT who write and think about ethics, and to lay the groundwork for the ethics center we hope will take root here as funding becomes available. We are hoping that this blog will provide a good way for us to stay connected with each other’s work, as well as to let the outside world know what we are up to.
