Ethics, a sense of what is right and wrong, seems to be subjective and any given person seems to be having at least some disagreements with almost anybody he knows. Religious/spiritual teachers, philosophers, and modern thinkers have written tomes dealing with ethics; they are commonly big, and more commonly boring. There seems to be no simple way of deciding right and wrong. Here I will attempt it. As a beginning we will only consider personal ethics i.e. what are the questions before an individual when deciding the ethics of an action. 

The first question is, “What are my choices?” As Ayn Rand said in one of her books, the question of ethics comes only if you have choices. There is no right and wrong when the choices are limited. For example, if a gunman holds my son and asks me to kill somebody else, there is no right or wrong whatever I do. In short, humans can be judged on ethics only if it is practical for them to choose good over bad. 

The second question must be, “What do I want to do?” In this universe, there is only one certainty; myself (for me). I can only be sure of my existence, thoughts, and motivations, and I cannot be sure of anything else. Therefore, it is only logical that I take care of myself, as a priority. So I do what gives me greatest sense of satisfaction, happiness, and sense of rightness, among all my available choices. 

The third question is, “Am I impinging on other people’s rights?” Others have the same rights as you do. It is wrong to expect others to respect your rights when you don’t respect theirs. Simply put, do not treat others the way you don’t want them to treat you. 

I personally think these 3 questions pretty much settle the question of ethics as far as personal action is concerned. An offshoot of applying these standards is the recognition of people’s right to engage in acts long considered sinful, as long as they are practiced by consenting adult individuals. A list of such possible acts include polygamy, polyandry, extra-marital relations, pre-marital sex, prostitution, incest, gambling, drugs, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, homosexuality, pornography, group sex, atheism or theism and so on. 

Some of the actions I listed above may sound too radical for most people. However, I am not saying it is good for people to indulge in all those things, health wise or happiness wise. I am only saying nobody (governments, groups or individuals) has the right to stop/ban any of these acts if practiced by consenting adult individuals. Of course, each and every act listed above has its own disadvantages which may have led to them being considered sinful. Declaring an act sinful may have been necessary in earlier times when there were no mass communication devices. But now, with the widespread availability of information (from widely differing viewpoints) through internet, TV channels, news papers, I think one should respect the right of any individual to take his own decision (whatever it is, as long as he doesn’t force others) based on all the information he has at his disposal. 

In summary, I think, ethics wise everything is acceptable as long as one doesn’t impinge on other people’s freedom and rights.

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