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Ethical Decision Making in Professional Contexts
You are a Superintendent of Police (SP) in a district. You are approached by a boy and a girl who are seeking police protection. They claim that they are adults and are of marriageable age and are ready to furnish documentary evidence to this effect. They want to marry each other, but they belong to different castes and their families and communities are opposed to the marriage. Further, the girl’s family and community have threatened the boy with dire consequences.
You are personally not in favour of marriages which involve elopement and believe family blessings are important for a strong foundation of marriage. Besides, your work force is hard pressed for man power on account of some political agitation which is going on. In such a situation you would
2.5 marks for Option (c)
1 mark for Option (b)
0 marks for Options (a) and (d)
Rationale/ Reasoning
(c) The best course of action is to allow police protection as per the established procedure. This is important as the boy and girl have expressed threat to life and as police authority it is your duty to protect them Option (c)
(b) Trying to convince the parents shows your concern and readiness to go out of your way to help others. This is a positive virtue as a human being. But here the help is being sought from the police authority/ the State to protect the life of human beings. In the present situation this is your foremost duty. As such Option (b) is not the best course of action.
(a) Trying to counsel others based on your own personal conviction is not what is being expected from a police authority. The boy and girl have come to seek protection and not counseling or sermon. As such Option (a) is inappropriate.
(d) Option (d) displays a negative trait, which is to ward off complainants and shrug off responsibility. This would be denial of justice and may endanger the life of the complainants.
Principle/ Value Tested
Readiness to discharge one’s official duties even in the cases of ordinary citizens
Ability to distinguish between personal beliefs and conviction and call of official duty