Doing What’s Right: Check Before You Act

It is ultimately your decision to decide if you act ethically or unethically.  Most people know what the right thing to do is but it may be much harder to actually do what is right.  Before making any decision about what is right and you wrong you should ask yourself the list of questions from this article.  Probably the most important question is if the action is legal or illegal.  If it is illegal you should stop right there, the action is wrong.  Once you have answered the entire question it is then time to decide if the action is right or wrong.  If you believe the action is ethical after truthfully answering all the question then the action is mostly likely ethical.  I think once you start using this as a type of checklist to process your thoughts about an issue that may be ethical or unethical, decision will start to come more naturally.  If you get in the habit of processing an idea in this way then you will start processing a ethical decision like this without a checklist.

<http://ethics.georgesmay.com/doing_right.htm>