Ethics Case study
Financial aid for education is made available by governments,educational institutions, and charitable trusts primarily with theobjective of helping children who come from the less advantaged sections ofsociety. Indeed, this is the reason why financial aid applications ask forinformation on family income and assets, as such data can help determine anindividual student's financial need. The other important fact about studentfinancial aid is that it is funded by taxes that are paid by all citizenson the tacit understanding that such monies will be used for the overallgood of society. Thus, the system of student financial aid has been set upwith an ethical purpose and as such, it can be argued that any attempt todeceive the system is unethical as it defeats the envisioned end ofachieving social justice. Viewed from this perspective, I find that thejustifications offered by John's parents for lying on John's financial aidapplication unacceptable. Further, the arguments put forth by John'sparents are unconvincing even when evaluated on their own independentmerit, as it raises the issue of certain basic, fundamental values such asintegrity. Therefore, in my view, John's parents' arguments are pretty
This is evident since the moralityof the decision would be unlikely to apply in another context. However, it must be admitted that it was not easy to reach the aboveconclusions. This view, in fact, follows that of David Hume who believedthat people approve of things that are useful or enjoyable, and theydisapprove of things that are useless and unpleasant. A more standardized formula will also help resolve any moral orethical issues arising out of different ways of financing a collegeeducation. Of course,there are alternative solutions as well such as a system, which offers justlow-interest or interest free student loans for families in pre-definedincome brackets. In fact, such a system may just be the answer to greatersocial justice besides reducing the burden on the Exchequer. thinas they are tantamount to an ethically and morally wrong principle. For, although the arguments were untenable when viewed fromthe stand point of objectivism or the theory that moral and ethical valuescan be objective, one's sympathies were with John's parents. This is especially true today withshrinking government funds. But the fact remains that the action they wereproposing was unethical and immoral since even Hume would have askedwhether John's parents' feelings were representative of the universal view(Richter). Another criterion, which could result in a more fairdistribution of financial aid, could be to look at a family's annual incomeexcluding earnings from assets built up over the long-term. For instance, there is clearly an ethical issue involved in thefact that some students get aid whereas others are forced to take a loan tofinance their college education. Take, forinstance, their argument that colleges seem to reward middle-class familieswho don't save money by giving them financial aid, rather than rewardingpeople who've saved all they can in order to give their children theadvantages of higher education. Thus, from the point ofview of John's parents, the ethical issues involved in this particular casewere fundamentally subjective since they disapproved of the system in thefirst place. Thus, it is important that John's parents apply the fundamental moralof financial integrity even in the case of a system, which seemingly failsto achieve its intended purpose.
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