Comparative Business Ethics: An Ethical Issue Analysis for HC2121

This essay analyzes a recent news article concerning a Melbourne doctor who made inappropriate comments on social media, leading to professional misconduct charges. The essay outlines the ethical issues, emphasizing the violation of social media ethics and professional codes. It explores the importance of ethical decision-making, presenting consequentialist, duty, and virtue frameworks. The author applies these frameworks to the case, discussing moral philosophies and the implications of unethical behavior. The essay highlights the impact of the doctor's actions, the potential consequences, and integrates the arguments from an ethical perspective. The essay references relevant literature to support its claims and analysis.

Running Head: ETHICAL ISSUE
Ethical Issue
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ETHICAL ISSUE
Topic- A recent news/media article that has been published within the last
3 months that concerns a business ethics issue/s within Australia (Melbourne
doctor who called for women to be raped stood down during investigation)
The chosen article talks about the Melbourne doctor who called for women to be
raped. The article also found the health district responsible for those hospitals which
employed the emergency doctor saying that “some women deserve to be raped”. The doctor
has been stood down while the entire investigation. It is not less than a “professional
misconduct” and doctors like Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee are shame on the face of the
medical world. Te article further reveals that the doctor has also faced suspension from the
Tasmanian health practitioners tribunal for the period of six weeks after having admitted that
he had posted a series of sexist and racist remarks online (Davey 2019). After working in
Tasmania for a long time, he began working in Victoria, Box Hill hospital as an emerging
doctor. The suspension order has barred him from working anywhere in Australia. The
present essay will work on outlining the summary of the ethical issue discussed in the article
and demonstrate its clear relevance with the ethics. It will also demonstrate my own decision
making and judgement process which is in relation to the ethical issue. It will further provide
an outline of the relevant ethical moral philosophies discussed in class and apply those in the
case. The easy will conclude by giving an outline of the main points and integrating the
whole argument.
The article informs us about what the Victorian health minister spokesperson Jenny
Mikakos told to the ABC. He viewed this to be an appalling behaviour which has not place
in Victoria and strictly not in the hospitals. The hospitals are the most trusted places of the
society and people come here to get relief from the ailments and it is unexpected that
unethical behaviour will take place from the representatives. The six-week tribunal ordered

2ETHICAL ISSUE
on Lee will have him undergo ethical behaviour training on the social media. The doctor has
a following group who find his views correct and accept them with reverence. It is a blunder
on the social media and violated the rules of the social exposure. The social media has a
wider reach which is beyond the technology and marketing. It is an open platform where
people can share their views or post their activities. It is a special platform where people have
an individual identity (Villi and Matikainen 2016). However, there are some rules of using
the social media and few etiquette too needs to be followed by the users and one cannot post
anything or everything on the media. The code of ethics on social media suggests that the
right etiquette equals the right way acting. One is not allowed to post or reveal anything that
hurts the emotions of a particular group and has to maintain the behaviour of kindness and
respect. From the perspective of the social media code of ethics, it is a violation of the ethical
conducts and should not be tolerated.
The making of the right decisions and the wrong decisions is permeated in the
everyday lives of people. The ethics must be an inseparable part of all stages of life. Ethics
teaches us how to act properly, how to create responsible organizations and governments and
making the society more ethical. The ethical decision making depends on few components
and helps to decide between the “right “ and the “ wrong” in the behaviour (Simangunsong,
Hendry and Stevenson 2016).The good ethical decision making requires a trained sensitivity
to the ethical issues along with a practiced method for the ethical aspects weighing the
considerations which impact on the choice of the course of action. An ethical decision
making is highly important for every person in every field of life. When the ethical decision
making is practiced for a long time, it gets aligned with the behaviour of the person. There
are three frameworks for the ethical decision making such as the consequentialist framework,
the duty framework and the virtue framework.

3ETHICAL ISSUE
The frameworks are based on the traditional normative ethical theories and guide the
three broad frameworks for the ethical decision making. In the consequentialist framework,
the focus is on the future effects and the possible course of action considering the people who
will be directly or indirectly affected. The advantage is that it is an ethical framework
concentrating on the results of the action which is a pragmatic approach involving various
people. On the other hand, it is not possible for everyone to predict the consequences of the
actions. Sometimes , it produces the good consequences which might also harm people. The
duty framework focuses on the obligations and duties one must follow in a give situation. It
considers the ethical obligations existing for addressing them (Villi and Matikainen 2016).
The ethical conduct is also defined by the duties one does at the right time setting the
goal in the correct direction. It focuses on the follow up of the moral duties being regardless
of the outcomes. It allows the possibility that a person might have acted ethically no matter
the result is. This is a perfect situation where the sense of obligation is strong. There are some
limitations too of this framework. Firstly , it might appear impersonal and might require some
action which are famous for harming people is spite of their keeping in terms with the moral
rules. The virtue framework is used for the identification of the character traits which might
motivate people in a given situation. People are much concerned with what type of person he
/she is and what they should be. People define the ethical behaviour as a something a virtuous
person would do in a particular situation.
The frameworks are used in the recognition of the ethical issues, help in the
consideration of the parties involved, gathering all the relevant information, formulating the
actions and considering the alternatives. Therefore, it is evident that the aim of the
consequentialist framework is to produce the most good, to perform the right action and to
develop one’s character. These are the main contrasts among the three types of frameworks
helpful in demonstrating the way the ethical judgements are made and the way they vary.

4ETHICAL ISSUE
The moral philosophies in ethics dictate the way people ought to act and define the
right conduct along with a good life which is satisfying or happy (Wong 2015). Ethics is
different morals and denotes the theory of right action along with the greater good The
morals indicate the practices and ethics is not limited to the specific acts and moral codes but
covers a whole range of moral ideals and the behaviours which is the philosophy of life. It
asks questions such as “ how should people act “ and “ what do people think to be right”, “
how are the moral knowledge put into practice” and “ what is the definition of ‘right’ and ‘
wrong ‘”. The inappropriate use of the social media can constitute an ethical violation under
certain circumstances (Zakaria and Sulaiman 2018). When a person posts something which
is supposed to stay confidential and personal is considered as misconduct and an ethical
issue. The code is also violated when an individual posts his .her offensive opinions and
engages in civil discourses. The code of ethic related to social media is a framework which
focuses on guiding the professionals in decision making. Hence, people should avoid the
remarks which may constitute defamation on social media. The Melbourne’ doctor as a
certificate holder should not have been engaged in such discussions and pos inflammatory
comments openly (Andrecka and Mitkidis 2017). Such a registered doctor like Lee should
not have commented in this manner because it has outraged the society and completely
unacceptable. His posts and comments have given insight into the way he feels about
women and treat women. It might lead to the denial of his medical licence and he might also
lose his job. The essay has well outlined and analysed the ethical issue in Australia and given
insight into the main arguments from the ethical point of view.

5ETHICAL ISSUE
Reference
Andrecka, M. and Mitkidis, K.P., 2017. Sustainability Requirements in EU Public and
Private Procurement-A Right or an Obligation. NJCL, p.55.
Davey, M. (2019). Melbourne doctor who called for women to be raped stood down during
investigation. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2019/apr/29/melbourne-doctor-christopher-kwan-chen-lee-who-called-for-women-to-
be-raped-stood-down-during-investigation [Accessed 18 May 2019].
Davis, K.D., Flor, H., Greely, H.T., Iannetti, G.D., Mackey, S., Ploner, M., Pustilnik, A.,
Tracey, I., Treede, R.D. and Wager, T.D., 2017. Brain imaging tests for chronic pain:
medical, legal and ethical issues and recommendations. Nature Reviews Neurology, 13(10),
p.624.
Martin, K.E., 2015. Ethical issues in the big data industry. MIS Quarterly Executive, 14, p.2.
Mason, R.O., 2017. Four ethical issues of the information age. In Computer Ethics (pp. 41-
48). Routledge.
Simangunsong, E., Hendry, L.C. and Stevenson, M., 2016. Managing supply chain
uncertainty with emerging ethical issues. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, 36(10), pp.1272-1307.
Villi, M. and Matikainen, J., 2016. Participation in social media: Studying explicit and
implicit forms of participation in communicative social networks. Media and
Communication, 4(4), pp.109-117.
Wong, S.S.H., 2015. Mobile digital devices and preschoolers’ home multiliteracy
practices. Language and Literacy, 17(2), pp.75-90.

6ETHICAL ISSUE
Zakaria, R. and Sulaiman, N.S., 2018. MEASURING IMPORTANT SUCCESS FACTORS
IN KNOWLEDGE SHARING BEHAVIOR AMONG ONLINE BUSINESS NETWORK
USERS USING ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS. International Journal of
Accounting, 3(12), pp.91-100.