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Samantha Silva
Period 4 - Service Learning
Mrs. Henry
10-14-14
My Code of Ethics
We are often times unaware of when we created our own personal code of ethics as it is
something so integral to ourselves that it was (and perhaps still is) constantly developing further
and automatically being applied to the way that we think and act. Thus, defining what ones
Code of Ethics is and how it truly developed requires them to delve into their own history and
thought processes and really reflect on their actions and the motives behind them. The first
ethical standard that came to mind for me was something along the lines of to each their own
which, once reading the white Moral characteristics paper in the back of the packet given to us,
aligns somewhere between respecting autonomy and being tolerant. Both of these lie in the
pesky four list but I havent had many problems with them. I think it has a great deal to do
with the way that one goes about it. I consider to each their own to be two standards as it falls
between the two categories. I would say the rest are Making peace, Doing no Harm and, to
an extent, being honest, truthful, trustworthy.
What to each their own means to me is that while I can, and probably will end up
influencing people, in the end their decisions should be their own and I should refrain from
ultimately influencing people. This means that they will be bound to the consequences they make
from their decisions as well, which I think could be positive in some cases. I tend to be a person
who gets a bit fussy when I think things arent being handled properly but upon realizing how

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harmful that could be to the more submissive people around me and the future of their decision
making skills I forced myself to take a step back. This is not to say that I dont think that I have a
responsibility as a friend and a person to tell people my opinions if I think theyre making poor
decisions that will impact them negatively. To each their own is somewhat like tell them your
opinions on the matter, advise them, but make it clear that in the end its their life and their
consequences.
The tolerance that comes in with to each their own can also mean that even though I
may not 100% agree with something, doesnt mean I have the right to decide against it for others
or to even really judge it up to a point. Human beings judge things automatically and this has
gotten a bad reputation recently. Judgment isnt necessarily a bad things, its just forming
opinions. What I mean by judging in the harmful sense is forming opinions based on limited
knowledge or on something that doesnt affect me and shouldnt logically matter. For instance, if
someone eats meat I could overly judge them for that. It doesnt align with my morals but my
morals arent everyones morals and they shouldnt be. Its honestly just a different lifestyle and
thinking poorly of people for their lifestyles if they dont affect me will ultimately be
problematic and harmful to the whole.
Going back a bit to the idea of influencing others, doing no harm is important to me
because Ive seen and felt the consequences of bad influences and I wouldnt want to be the
cause of making someones lasting sorrow or bitterness. Often we dont realize the effect we can
have on others and how long it can last. Ive met people who are still grumbling about things that
happened when they were teenagers and I dont want to ever put someone in that position. On
top of that, I believe that making peace is important to me because communicating and
compromising can preserve important relationships between people that would otherwise be lost

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if people just flippantly decided to stand their ground even on little disagreements. My
relationships with people are important to me so this ethical standard is ranked highly in my
mind. This goes along well with Being honest, truthful, and trustworthy. Normally I might
have hesitated to choose this value as I personally believe that lying can be necessary at times
but ignoring all of the loopholes and what ifs that make choosing things so hard for me this
one is important to me. Straight up lying is harmful to relationships. Thats just the truth of the
matter for the most part. Being frank and open, communicating well and trying to be truthful
with those you care about and even just those that are generally around you is important just for
everyday living. Communication is paramount.
Ethics are all nice and dandy, but they had to have come from somewhere. Mine came, as
with most people, first from my parents and later from my own way of perceiving the world
around me. My mother raised me with the idea that I should discover and research many
different religions and when I was old enough, make my own decisions on them. If I agreed with
her, that was fine, if not, that was my choice. Of course it would have made her sad perhaps if I
had decided to stray far from her views but she would have accepted it. As it turns out, I share
some views with her and still vary in many ways. Because she gave me such freedom spiritually,
I think that made me more willing to be tolerant (not to say that tolerance and acceptance is
always easy for me). My parents have more defined morals than I do but I believe that many
things are in the gray so around middle school is when I started to stray significantly. My
morality from then on was shaped from my experiences and observations and thinking through
things. I think some part of morality has to do with a sense of justice that cant always be
explained and that gives a vague compass but logic can certainly fall into that compass as well
and tame in some of the more ridiculous senses of justice, which is why we dont stone people

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for tiny infractions anymore. That being said, humans do naturally have a sense of what is a
right or wrong way to treat one another, which is where our justice stems from. We dont
like when we see someone getting bullied (generally speaking, at least someone were close to).
It hits something in us when we become old enough to actually think through things. Because of
this, I would classify myself as Post conventional, probably around stage five.
Civic virtue is a code of ethics pertaining to a citizens relationship and interactions with
their society and community. A good citizen would be someone who attempts to be courteous
to those around them and perhaps tries to change things for the better. This benefits society as
they will be one less rude person bringing everybody else down and their changes could go a
long way to affect others lives. This in turn could inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
One ethical dilemma I encountered recently involved a close friend of mine pointing out
something disagreeable in my manner of dealing with people. I agreed with part of it openly but I
believed there were parts that she had greatly misunderstood and had been wrongly classifying
the causes. I had already noticed the distasteful behavior beforehand so I had no qualms of
admitting to it to her but she oversimplified my actions and on top of it wasn't willing to discuss
it with me to resolve the issue she saw. I pondered it for a few days and went to discuss it with a
trusted mentor of mine because I wasnt sure how to handle the conflict between what I believed
to be true and what she believed to be true. Talking to them helped greatly and I was reassured of
my own thought processes as well as being posed a question that decided how I handled the
situation. The question was, What is more important, being right or that person being in your
life?.

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Its important for each individual to have a code of ethics because otherwise they arent
secure in their own decision making. A code of ethics allows individuals to lay a structure for
their decisions and gives them something to hold onto when the uncertainty of life hits them. We
will all have moments where were unsure, our code of ethics can guide us in those troubled
times. Having ones own code of ethics also prevents peer pressure as well. If one doesnt have a
code of ethics of their own its much easier for them to be swayed by others ideas of ethics
rather than thinking out their own answers to dilemmas.
This assignment has taught me a bit how to define some parts of my own code of ethics
and how my values can affect them. It seems I dont actually have many opinions on civic virtue
either way when usually Im bursting with opinions. My long-windedness was also securely
confirmed. It seems that its almost impossible to be asked questions about ethics without having
to fully explain it. I honesty could have written a five paragraph essay on the paragraph one
question alone. On top of that, it seems I have more defined morals than I thought. My sense of
justice is very strong but I try as best I can to temper it with logic so it doesnt get out of hand
and overshoot itself.