Final answer:
Ethical issues involve complex choices between right and wrong actions, frequently seen in business ethics and IT. Applied ethics addresses these issues in various contexts, including bioethics and emerging technology ethics, with professional organizations establishing codes of ethics to guide conduct.
Step-by-step explanation:
‘Ethical issues’ refer to problems or situations that require a person or organization to choose between alternatives that must be evaluated as right (ethical) or wrong (unethical). These issues are often complex and involve balancing competing moral principles and values. In the context of business and information technology (IT), ethical issues may include corporate responsibility, the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, and the development and implementation of codes of ethics to guide the conduct of organization members.
Business ethics, a major subfield of applied ethics, examines the relationships between firms and their employees and shareholders, focusing on practices such as affirmative action in university admissions and hiring. Emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, also raise significant ethical concerns, including privacy and the impact on the workforce. Applied ethics involves the application of moral norms and principles to controversial issues like abortion, euthanasia, and biomedical research, as well as the study of bioethics, which addresses ethical issues in medicine, biology, and technology.
Within specific professions, such as nursing and teaching, codes of ethics are issued to ensure that members behave in a manner consistent with the field’s standards. In fields related to science and technology, organizations like the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS) provide resources, including codes of ethics that address norms related to software development and its implications on quality of life, privacy, and the environment.