Ethics Newsline®

“How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions?”

The derisive answer, of course, is that they can’t be. Even so noteworthy a Cold War diplomat as George Kennan opined that there is no place for “the carrying over into affairs of state of the concepts of right and wrong” — because, he argued, “state behavior” is not “a fit subject for moral judgment.”

But that was in 1952. As a register of how far we’ve come in 55 years, look at a report launched this week at the United Nations Bookstore by the World Federation of United Nations Associations. Titled “2007 State of the Future,” by Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon, it centers on fifteen “Global Challenges.” The eleventh in a series of annual reports, it reflects what the authors describe as “the cumulative and distilled range of judgments from nearly 2,400 participants” around the world.

Predictably present on this list of challenges are global sustainability, population growth, disease control, the gap between rich and poor, ethnic conflicts and terrorism, transnational crime, and the status of women. More surprising is number 15, abbreviated by the authors as “global ethics” and using, as its chapter title, the question quoted at the top of this column.

There’s nothing goody-goody about this chapter’s ethical analysis. While the tone of the overall report is in part optimistic — noting that life expectancy, literacy, and gross domestic products per capita are increasing, while infant mortality and global conflicts are decreasing — it is also sobering, warning of global warming, rising sea levels, the need to create more fresh water, the payment of more than $1 trillion a year in political bribes, and the presence of “more slaves in the world now than at the highest point of the African slave trade,” most of them women in Asia.

In like manner the chapter on global ethics is clear-eyed. Some downside points:

• “The speed at which the fabric of life has begun to change seems beyond the ability of most people and institutions to comprehend, leading to ethical uncertainties.”
• “Globalization and advanced technology allow fewer people to do more damage and in less time than ever before.”
• “Religions and ideologies that claim moral superiority give rise to ‘we-they’ splits.”
• “Some [in Asia and Oceania] do not believe there are common global ethics, and maintain that the pursuit to create them is a western notion.”

But it also cites the rise of corporate ethics indices and civil society forums, along with the World Bank’s effort to list unethical companies and the more than 2,000 businesses that have joined the U.N.’s Global Compact, pledging to “use global ethics in decisionmaking.” It also notes explicit efforts to develop global ethics, singling out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNESCO’s Universal Ethics Project, the Commission on Global Governance, and the Institute for Global Ethics. (Disclosure notice: Report co-author Theodore J. Gordon is an emeritus board member of IGE.)

How can global ethics be bolstered? The report’s concise summary calls for “more effective ways to control lobbying, reduce greed and self-centeredness, encourage honor and honesty, promote parental guidance to establish a sense of values, reduce barriers to the freedom of inquiry, encourage respect for legitimate authority, support the identification and success of the influence of role models, implement cost-effective strategies for global education for a more enlightened world, make behavior match the values people say they believe in, and spread the Olympic spirit.”

But if there is a single theme reverberating throughout the report, it is the need for better decision making. If, as the authors suggest, global complexity is outrunning the capacity of our current management systems, then new decision-making systems may be needed in the future. Today’s national decision makers, however, “have not been trained in the theory and practice of decisionmaking,” much less in any system that prompts them to contemplate “the ethical considerations of their decisions.” Needed, say the authors, is “formalized ethics and decision training for decisionmakers,” which they say “could result in a significant improvement in the quality of global decisions.”

At bottom, however, the state of the future does not depend simply on better individual decision makers. It requires a wholesale evolution in culture. “It is increasingly clear,” the authors conclude, “that cultural change is necessary to address global challenges.” If this report is any indication, that change has begun already. In George Kennan’s day, nobody would have thought to connect global decision making with ethical considerations. That connection is now central to what U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, describing this report, calls “invaluable insights into the future for the United Nations, its Member States, and civil society.”

©2007 Institute for Global Ethics

“Every administration does it. It doesn’t matter the party the president comes from or who controls Congress. While I’d like to say this administration won’t, I have to accept that we’ll likely see an increase in activity toward the end of our time here.”

– Susan Dudley, head of the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, quoted in a New York Times article examining the expected rush by the Bush administration to rewrite regulations and enact unfulfilled wishes via presidential edicts as Bush’s term comes to an end. The Times’ piece examines past efforts by other presidents to bypass Congress to do the same, noting that Bush’s team is already at work rewriting rules on “the environment, public lands, homeland security, health and safety.”

DURHAM, N.C.
One of the most prominent and troubling legal ethics cases in recent years took another unusual twist last week as former North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong, who pursued a faulty rape case against three Duke University lacrosse players, served a day in jail.

Nifong, who was disbarred and resigned his post as Durham County district attorney, was jailed for contempt of court and sentenced to one day in jail after a judge found him guilty of making false statements during a hearing last year, UPI reports.

He was released early Sunday morning and had no substantive comment other than to say he was treated well by jail officials.

Nifong was found to have provided the lacrosse players’ defense team with a DNA test he knew was incomplete. The omitted data would have shown that no DNA from the three lacrosse players accused of raping an exotic dancer was found on the accuser.

One of the players pursued by Nifong, who was found by a legal inquiry to have ignored a wide range of evidence that could have exonerated the defendants, missed morning practice to watch Nifong surrender.

Thomas Clute told the Raleigh News and Observer that he “wanted to watch vindication, the culmination of everything ending.” Clute took pictures with his digital camera as Nifong walked into the Durham County Detention Center.

Nifong’s sentence is unprecedented, according to Thomas Metzloff, a Duke University law professor who has followed the case closely.

“This just doesn’t happen,” he told Newsday. “This was a very important moment because it showed that the court system really cared about what happened in this case.”

Nifong’s jailing punctuates the saga that began in 2006 when Nifong, who was embroiled in an election campaign, doggedly pursued the racially charged case, telling voters he wouldn’t allow Durham to become known for “a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl.”

TIME magazine notes that a state bar disciplinary committee later concluded that Nifong had exploited the case to garner votes, pursuing the charges even when it became obvious that the defendants could not be convicted on the available evidence.

Civil charges in the case are still pending, with various news organizations reporting that the vindicated players are pushing for a $30 million settlement with Durham County.

VARIOUS DATELINES
Stories on three continuing issues made headlines this week:

• The state of New Jersey has been rocked by another public corruption scandal: a sweep that culminated in the arrests of 11 public officials, reports CNN. Those arrested include state assemblymen, a mayor, a chief of staff for a city council president, and five current and former school board members in the town of Pleasantville, near Atlantic City. All are accused of accepting bribes from various firms in order to secure public contracts. In recent years New Jersey has endured a drumbeat of stories involving allegations of public corruption.
• Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), caught up in an ethics scandal after pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor involving charges he solicited sex from an undercover policeman in an airport bathroom, still plans to resign his seat, according to a report from Bloomberg. Craig said on September 1 that he “intended” to resign but later indicated he would fight to clear his name and might try to finish his term. Craig’s spokesman on Friday told Bloomberg the senator still “expects” to resign at month’s end and is actively planning his transition.
• Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), indicted on federal bribery charges, last week filed court papers claiming he did nothing wrong and asking that the trial be moved to Washington, insisting that prosecutors brought the case against him in Virginia because there would be fewer black jurors in the overall pool, the Washington Post reports. Prosecutors denied any racial motives. Jefferson is charged with taking bribes to use his official position to further the interests of several private businesses. An FBI raid found $90,000 in cash hidden in a freezer of his home.

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La.
The wrenching ethical dilemmas surrounding elderly and disabled patients facing the advancing floodwaters of hurricane Katrina were recounted in a trial that ended late last week with the acquittal of the owners of a nursing home accused of homicide because they did not evacuate the facility as the storm approached.

A Louisiana jury took about four hours to acquit Sal and Mabel Mangano, the husband-and-wife owners of St. Rita’s Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, reports the New York Times.

Prosecutors claimed that the couple ignored warnings of the danger posed by the storm. But the defense argued that the nursing home offered reasonable protection, saying the deaths occurred because the government-built levees failed. Defense attorneys also presented testimony from medical experts who said that it was too dangerous to move some of the patients.

A report from the Associated Press notes that the case highlights a dilemma that confronted nursing home operators throughout the disaster: While floodwaters can prove deadly, so can evacuation of frail and elderly people.

AP writer Mary Foster, in a backgrounder to the trial story, relates an incident involving another nursing home: “The first victims of Hurricane Katrina never felt the raging winds, never saw the floodwaters. They were two elderly nursing-home residents who died on a school bus that took three hours to load and five hours to travel from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. A third resident of the Ferncrest Manor Living Center died later at a hospital, and 21 others were treated for dehydration after riding buses that officials said were not air-conditioned, lacked water and had no certified nurses aboard. Authorities blamed the deaths on the stresses of the evacuation.”

In a related story, Newsweek recently profiled Dr. Anna Pou, a surgeon accused of murder in the deaths of nine patients in a long-term care center in a New Orleans hospital. Pou was cleared after a grand jury refused to indict her. In an interview with Newsweek, Pou said she did administer morphine and other sedatives to desperately ill patients in the chaotic hospital, knowing it could hasten their deaths, but only with the intention of alleviating their suffering — not with any intent to kill them.

NEW YORK
The man who became a symbol of corporate greed and amorality — and who was at the vortex of a case that transformed U.S. business ethics practices — last week filed an appeal of his fraud and conspiracy convictions.

Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, now serving a 24-year prison sentence, filed papers claiming that the judge’s instructions to the jury were deficient and that various legal strategies adopted by the prosecution were “defective,” according to the Washington Post.

His attorneys also argue that the judge made a mistake in refusing to move the trial from Houston, where widespread anger over the company’s implosion “poisoned” the jury pool.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Skilling’s legal team is arguing that the government attempted to criminalize normal business practices in an overzealous effort to affix blame for the corporation’s failure. “That someone was Jeff Skilling — the last man standing when the court meted out its punishment,” the appeal contends.

Skilling’s lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, argues that “profound, inherent weaknesses in the government’s case – not just gaps in its evidentiary proof, but doubts about its basic theories of criminality – motivated the government to resort to novel and incorrect legal theories, demand truncated and unfair trial procedures, and use coercive and abusive tactics,” according to a report from the CBC.

An analysis by CNN reporter Katy Byron notes that the appeal is a significant development because it questions prosecutors’ approaches in what became the seminal case involving modern business ethics.

“Enron’s collapse,” Byron writes, “marked the first of the high-profile corporate scandals that rocked the nation after the 1990s’ economic boom. It was followed by WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia and Tyco. The wave of fraud led to passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which tightened oversight of how American companies are audited.”

LONDON
In one of the more controversial applications of stem cell research, British scientists may be able to create “interspecies” embryos by the end of the year following a decision by a government medical panel.

The Times of London reports that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority agreed in principle to give the go-ahead to two teams that want to fuse human DNA with cow eggs to produce embryos from which they can extract stem cells — a process producing what are called cytoplasmic hybrids, or “cybrids,” as they have been dubbed in the British press.

Proponents of the technique say it is a more efficient and ethical way to obtain stem cells because it does not involve the harvesting and destruction of human eggs, according to a report from Wired.

The U.K. Guardian notes that the decision followed a three-month public consultation period that included administration of an opinion poll, which found that 61 percent of the public approved of interspecies embryonic research if it would lead to improved understanding of disease.

Scientists involved in stem cell research say the derived tissue can be used to regenerate damaged organs and tissues caused by diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Opponents have posed ethical and religious objections to the creation of an animal-human hybrid, reports the London Daily Telegraph, and influential groups such as the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship and Comment on Reproductive Ethics are considering seeking a judicial appeal of the decision.

SAN DIEGO
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego last week reached a $198.1 million agreement to settle lawsuits filed by 144 childhood sexual abuse victims.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the settlement also requires the diocese to release church documents relating to sex abuse by priests. Some of the cases date back 30 to 40 years.

One of the plaintiffs, Michael Bang, told San Francisco television station KPBS that he insisted on the disclosure because he wants to “make sure that this information gets out, that the public understands that this was going on for decades — not just a couple of years, but decades — and they moved these priests around, and they knew it was going on, and they have to take responsibility for this now.”

The Jurist, a publication of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, reports that the current settlement evolved after the diocese sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While 42 pending cases were originally suspended when the bankruptcy application was filed, a federal judge ruled last month that the cases could go to trial, accepting arguments by the plaintiff’s attorneys that allowing the cases to move forward could pressure the diocese to settle the case.

The Agence France-Presse reports that San Diego bishop Richard Brom said he hoped the settlement would bring closure to the victims.

“The Diocese has always been committed to resolving this litigation in a way that fairly compensates these victims of abuse and would still preserve the ongoing ministries and programs of the Church,” Brom said, according to the AFP report.

“We pray that this settlement will bring some closure and healing to the years of suffering experienced by these victims.”

NEW YORK
Taxi service in New York City was disrupted last week after a dispute involving one of the most prominent modern ethical dilemmas — the right to privacy versus the electronic efficiency afforded by new technologies.

At issue: City transit authorities want cabbies to install satellite tracking devices, which are supposed to help locate lost luggage.

All-news radio station WCBS reports that many cabbies worry the devices could be used to track their movements.

The GPS systems feature a computer display in the back seat that displays the cab’s route. In addition, the GPS device is linked to a system allowing passengers to pay by credit card, which some cabbies also object to because they say the transaction fees imposed by the credit card companies will eat into their profits.

“Taxi drivers sometimes use the cars in their private time. Why should they tell the [commission] where they are going on a Sunday with their family? This is an invasion of privacy,” said the organizer of the two-day strike, Bhairavi Desai, according to a report from the BBC.

Another point of contention is the fact that the computer screens stream loud video ads into the back seat, a practice the New York Post notes can become annoying to the passengers, who effectively constitute a captive audience.

While the strike created long lines at the big taxi standsand presumably forced many to walk or the take the bus or subway, city life moved along pretty much as usual, according to New York cable-news station NY1.

BEIJING
Two central themes in news about ethics in China merged last week.

Amid several years’ worth of stories about theft of intellectual property in the growing economic powerhouse of Asia, as well as a roughly equal number of items about the nation’s effort to fight mushrooming corruption, comes a new development: Testimonies of regret by officials charged with corruption are now being plagiarized.

The Reuters news agency reports that Zhang Shaocang, former Communist Party chief of a state-owned power company, wept as he read a four-page “letter of apology” during his corruption trial.

But his mea culpa was found to be pretty much identical to one delivered by Zhu Fuzhong, a disgraced former party chief of Tongan village in southwestern Sichuan province, whose apology letter was printed in a state-run newspaper days before.

Among the purloined confessions, according to a report from USA Today: “Before working, I never gave much thought to money and regarded achievement as the starting point and end result of my workà. I gradually lost my bearings and the scope of my position.”

The paper that printed both apologies dismissed the sincerity of the second one with a term that roughly translates to “showboating.”

From the Pew Global Attitudes Project:

“The planet is a happier place these days, at least in many parts of the world where incomes are low and life is tough … but economies are improving. In particular, as economic growth has surged in much of Latin America, East Europe and Asia over the past five years, people are expressing greater satisfaction with their personal lives, family incomes and national conditions. The picture is considerably different in most advanced nations, where per capita GDP gains have been less robust and citizen satisfaction has changed little since 2002.

“The Pew Global Attitudes Project’s 47-nation survey finds that measures of personal and economic satisfaction remain modest in the developing world when compared with measures for advanced nations, but this gap has narrowed. The increasing contentment in developing nations is clearly correlated with sizable increases in per capita gross domestic product that, in most cases, far outpaced the rate of growth prior to 2002.

“Publics in Latin America and Eastern Europe — where per capita GDP has risen markedly in recent years — rate their lives and national conditions far more favorably than they did in Pew’s 2002 wave of interviewing. The same is true in China and India…. The pattern is less pronounced, however, elsewhere in Asia. And in sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita GDP has increased in many nations, overall satisfaction measures are up modestly, at best.

“In contrast, levels of personal contentment and satisfaction with annual incomes have been much more stable in North America, Western Europe and Japan, where income growth has been less impressive. Also, unlike in the developing world, satisfaction with national conditions is flat or has declined in most advanced nations where trends are available.

“In addition to examining how people around the world view their own lives, national conditions, and national and international institutions, the survey also provides a detailed look at specific trends within different regions of the world. Most notably, the survey finds large and growing numbers of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere rejecting Islamic extremism.

“The percentage of Muslims saying that suicide bombing is justified in the defense of Islam has declined dramatically over the past five years in five of eight countries where trends are available. In Lebanon, for example, just 34% of Muslims say suicide bombings in the defense of Islam are often or sometimes justified; in 2002, 74% expressed this view. However, Palestinians stand out for their broad acceptance of suicide bombing. Seven-in-ten-Palestinians say this tactic is at least sometimes justified.

“The regional analyses also shed light on other major issues. For instance, there is broad support for free-market economic policies across Latin America, despite the election in the past decade of leftist leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. In Africa, poverty and widespread deprivation have not diminished optimism about the future. And Muslim publics, particularly those in closest proximity to Iraq, express significant concern that the Sunni-Shia divide driving violence in that country is turning into a broader problem worldwide….

“In spite of the economic gains across a broad swath of developing and emerging economies, citizens of rich countries remain far happier and more satisfied than those in poorer nations. In addition, large percentages in many developing countries û even in some where the gains in contentment have been the greatest û report they have not been able to afford food, clothing, and medical care over the past 12 months.

“Among the populations of the seven Latin American nations surveyed, no fewer than a quarter (in Argentina) and as many as six-in-ten (in Bolivia and Peru) say there have been times in the past year when they have been unable to afford food. These figures are comparable in the 10 countries surveyed in Africa; in developing countries throughout Asia and the Middle East; as well as in most of the East European nations surveyed. This compares with 16% in the United States, and even fewer in Canada, Japan, and most of Western Europe….

“Yet as was the case in previous Global Attitudes surveys, more people in Africa than in the other regions surveyed express the view that their lives will be better five years from now. In addition, majorities in most African nations say that when children in their countries grow up they will be better off than people are today. The belief that life will be better for the next generation also is widespread in other poor and emerging countries — notably, 86% of Chinese respondents in the Pew survey look ahead to a better life for their country’s children.

“Opinions about the prospects for the next generation are much more negative in many advanced countries. Fully 80% of the French say that when their country’s children grow up, they will be worse off than people are today. Smaller but substantial majorities in Germany, Japan, Italy, Great Britain, the United States and Canada also are pessimists regarding the next generation’s overall prospects….

“While economic growth is linked with more favorable views of one’s national government, the survey points to several important exceptions to this pattern. For example, Great Britain and the United States have experienced fairly strong economic growth since 2002 when compared with other advanced countries, yet in both countries positive views of the government have declined significantly. And in the Czech Republic, the percent saying that the government is having a good influence on national conditions has fallen from 57% in 2002 to 36% in the new survey, despite robust growth in that country….

“The survey also finds that, despite overwhelming concern about the spread of AIDS and other infectious diseases throughout Africa, fewer than 30% in every country surveyed say they have taken an HIV test. In South Africa, where an estimated 5.5 million people are infected with HIV according to UNAIDS data, just 20% say they have been tested for the virus….

“The polling also underscores the lack of international consensus about the world order reported in this year’s first Global Attitudes report. Notably, the United States is named about as often as a close ally as it is named the biggest threat by respondents in the 47-nation survey. No other single country or international institution was as frequently cited as a top ally or threat, including Iran….

“Crime, political corruption, drugs, the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and pollution are mentioned most frequently as top national problems by the citizens of the 47 countries surveyed. But terrorism, the poor quality of drinking water, and religious/ethnic conflict also are high on the problems list….”

“Right and truth are greater than any power, and all power is limited by right.”

– Benjamin Whichcote (British philosopher and religious figure, 1609-1683)