In this session, you have been considering moral-ethical dilemmas you yourself faced or that you know of that
you either resolved or failed to resolve, but hopefully learned from. You may never have given much thought to
ethical theory nor what ethical premises/paradigms you have unconsciously held.
You will be focusing on this case for this assignment:
Jane Doe is a nursing student at University X. Jane is in week eight of a course entitled: “Introduction to
Ethics”.
For the week one discussion, Jane copied work done by her friend John Doe in the same class two months
ago (with a different professor). John told Jane it was okay to use his work as John’s professor never checked
any work in the class using Turnitin.com. John claimed to have earned an A on the work also.
In week two, Jane went to StudentPapering.com and paid ten dollars for a week two essay done by a student
(not John Doe) who took the same course four months ago. StudentPapering promises that all its archived
work is of excellent quality and cannot be detected as copied. Jane then uploaded an exact copy of the work
for the week two assignment.
In week three, Jane paid a worker at PaperingStudent.com ten dollars to write for Jane a brand new essay
after Jane shared with the worker the essay assignment instructions.
In week four, Jane relied on her knowledge of Esperanto. She felt pressed for time and found an article by a
professor from Esperanto on the week four topic. She translated Esperanto into English using Moogle
Translate, and the translated text served as her week four paper.
In week five, Jane was running late again. Jane purposely uploaded a blank paper hoping that she would later
claim it was an innocent mistake and not be assessed a late penalty. In a previous course on History, she had
done the same (with an earlier paper from the History class rather than simply a blank) and had not seen any
late penalty assessed.
In week six, Jane took work she did in a nursing course from a year ago and submitted that for her discussion
posting in her current class. She simply copied and pasted the work she had labored intensively on a year ago
(even though University X forbids this practice as ‘self-plagiarism’). Jane was confident her Nursing instructor
never checked that work using Turnitin.com or another method.
In week seven, Jane copied and pasted work found on website.com for the paper. Jane did not use any
quotation marks or other documentation to show the text was not by Jane.
Since Jane’s Ethics professor did not check papers and posting for any issues by using Turnitin.com or another
method, the professor graded all of Jane’s work unaware of Jane’s actions throughout the weeks of the class.
Jane feels her actions are morally justified both because her economic situation requires her to work too much
to devote time to school (although other students are well-off enough to have such time) and her religion
forbids cheating, but Jane ignores her religion’s teachings.
Instructions
Now that you have had an opportunity to explore ethics formally, create a reflective assessment of your
learning experience and the collaborations you engaged in throughout this session. You will submit both of the
following:
A written reflection
For the written reflection, address Jane Doe’s and respond to the following:
Articulate again your moral theory from week eight discussion (You can revise it if you wish). What two ethical
theories best apply to it? Why those two?
Apply to Jane Doe’s case your personal moral philosophy as developed in week eight discussion and now. Use
it to determine if what Jane Doe did was ethical or unethical per your own moral philosophy.
Consider if some of these examples are more grave instances of ethical transgressions than others. Explain.
Propose a course of social action and a solution by using the ethics of egoism, utilitarianism, the “veil of
ignorance” method, deontological principles, and/or a theory of justice to deal with students like Jane. Consider
social values such as those concerning ways of life while appraising the interests of diverse populations
Sample Solution
