The main idea of this section of the course centers around the morality of choices in people's everyday lives. This morality ranging from people in the armed forces, to the buisness world, to difficult medical desicions made everyday, can be extremly difficult without any clear cut answer. These difficult decisions have serious consequences that affect the people for the rest of their lives (Vietnam War veterans at My lai, legal buisness consequences for Enron employees, and the changed lives of those affected by the medical treatment they are given.)
The first major idea I want to remember is the tragedy at My Lai and the effects that they had on both the people in Vietnam and the soliders who took part in it. The My lai tradgey occured when American soliders basically murdered innocent and defensless woman and children at the village of My Lai. The images from the video struck a deep chord of disbeleif in me that anyone could do this to so many innocents- especially American soliders. I want to remember this video because not only does it show me the terrible situations that war can cause, but also the programmed mindset that we can all become apart of if we do not watch ourselves.
The second major idea I want to remember is the case of the little girl in need of a liver transplant. Her uncle offered to donate part of his liver in a risky procedure that could cost him his own life. Eventually, this idea was shot down by doctors and she fell closer towards death. The main docotor would not allow someone emotionally unattached to the patient to give the liver because he did not want people selling body parts. I want to remember not only the courage of the uncle but firm position of the doctor who knew what he believed was right and stuck to it.
The last major issue I want to remember is the bankruptcy of TWA happend because of greed and a lack of morality. Carl Icahn used his buisness savy skills to put millions of people out of a job and destoryed a convient company in order to make millions of dollars. The thing I really want to rememeber is that no matter how much money I could make, it should not be put before my moral values.
