Ethical Standards: A Crucial Part Of The Social Fabric

Ethical Standards
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Ethical Standards
Ethical standards are a crucial part of the social fabric and they come down to the individuals. Every individual is guided by a moral compass that determines what they consider to be wrong and that which is right to them. Ethical standards for this reason are a crucial part of the society as they determine the manner in which each and every person interacts with the other. The significance of ethical standards cannot be underestimated considering that most of the government agencies and in the business world, they are considered the baseline for even the most basic operations. Businesses across the globe are struggling to maintain the highest level of ethical standards when it comes to their activities. These includes but not limited to dealing with shareholders, customers, staff and the government agencies among others. There are quite a number of aspects that have been associated with the terror threats around the world and most of them have invoked ethical debates across the globe. From social media reports, research reports and news items, it is clear that there is a thin line between protecting the rights of the citizens and making sure that the privacy of the people is not violated, while at the same time making sure there some element of efficiency in catching the terrorists before they can attack.
Security Concerns
Travelling across the states, one will experience some level of scrutiny that indicates the level of vigilance against any terror attacks (Hunter, 2017). At the airport, it is common for passengers to be subjected to thorough checks to establish if they could be carrying any material that could harmful to the other passengers on the plane. With the event that lead to the 9/11 it is obvious for anyone to understand the need for the security checks at the airport. None of the airports wants to be the vulnerable point from where another attack such as the 9/11. Traveling by air is one of the most convenient means of transport in the united states. Travelling above ten thousand feet and carrying millions of people across the states, air transport is one of the most vulnerable places that terror attacks can take place. It is also one of the most crucial piece of the economy that could lead to massive causalities and damage to the economy, as was seen in the 9/11 attacks. Given the magnitude of the risks involved in the air travel docket, the element of heightened security operations at the airports, it can be understood. Every other passenger and their loved ones want to know that they are safe boarding a plane. Contrary to common belief, air transport is however one of the safest forms of transport, with means such as road transport being significantly risky.
Ethical Concerns and Dilemma
There have been concerns about the level of scrutiny that the passengers are exposed to when they come in through the airports. Some of the search procedures have been determined to be largely unethical and a violation of privacy for the passengers ("Airline Passenger Security Screening", 1996). Passengers and civil liberty groups have been keen on the issues regarding the level of privacy and the ethical standards that have been expressed with regard to the airport searches.
There are quite a number of methods that have been employed at most of the airports and one of them being the full body scanning (Salami, 2017). This is different from the metal detectors as they are able to detect a variety of materials that could be hidden under the clothes of the travelers (Salami, 2017). Materials such as liquids and plastic bombs which cannot be detected using metal detectors, are easily identified using the full body detectors (Mail Online, 2010). Of the main concern in this paper however is the technique where screeners slide their hands over the body of the traveler at the checkpoint. In the past, searches at the airports and commonly among most of the security checks around the country, have involved patting and metal detectors (Mail Online, 2010). The patting process is a common means of ensuring that persons entering a controlled area are not carrying any concealed material or weapons in this case. Sliding arms around the body is new invasive way that the airport authorities are using to make sure that the passengers are not carrying concealed items. This is especially a common practice around the airports for all the passengers that refuse to go through the full body imaging.
This is an approach that is largely dehumanizing to the passengers. Having someone run their hands in a manner that can be considered sexually invasive is unethical. From the point that the passengers that are mostly subjected to this practice are those that refuse to have full body imaging, it can be extrapolated to mean that this is a way to impose punishment. If one does not comply with an invasive imaging technology, they are subjected to inhumane searches that involve feeling through their body. For any passenger that has ever been touched inappropriately, this is a horrific experience, one that leaves traumatizing memories (Hunter, 2017). It is not easy for the passengers that have endured the inhumane practice carried out on them to feel comfortable arou...