There exists an intrinsic and essential difference between moral good and moral evil. This seems like a simple and acceptable
statement of fact until we begin to analyze the motives and guiding norms being used by many people today
There are some who use norm that current opinions and customs determine the acceptable mode of acting or at least rationalized along those lines. This is reflected in the not uncommonly heard phrase. “Everybody is doing it.” But right is still right no matter how many people are wrong. Many of the attempts at persuasive arguments relative to “planned parenthood” and contraceptive birth control run along this line: Most people today hold that contraception is morally allowable; therefore it is. In other words, there are people who would in point of fact base
morality on majority opinion.
Again, some people in our day consider as good and moral those things which in their opinion help society or others. This is a form of warped altruism. Euthanasia is “justified” since it relieves a person of his suffering and relieves society and a family of a burden.
Other people regulate their actions in accordance with what is useful for them at the moment rather than what is objectively right or wrong. This is the norm of
expediency. One of the best examples of a man who used this standard is the one who sat in the judgment seat passing a sentence on an innocent Man nineteen hundred years ago. It was Pilate who said of Christ, “I have no part in the death of this innocent man.” But because he knew that the people might have him removed from his office if he did not do their will he sentenced Christ to death; it was more advantageous to him to do so at the time. It was the expedient thing to do. Many a person today guides his actions by expediency rather than by morality
Morality is not a matter of current opinions or actions of the majority; it is not a matter of what is useful at the moment, of a spirit of altruism, of expediency, of feeling. It is not a matter of social usefulness or sentiment. That is right which is in conformity with human nature and right reason or commanded by God; that is wrong which runs contrary to human nature, right reason, or God’s commands. Rape, murder and adultery are wrong not because of statistics or popularity or public apathy or expediency or opinion polls, but because they run counter to right reason and God’s will. Basically, it is a question of principle versus expediency.
Morality is intrinsic, objective, and unchanging. That is right which is in conformity with the divine will. It is expressed in our life through a properly formed conscience.
A nurse must cultivate an analytical mind. She cannot allow her moral sense to be clouded by false norms or morality with which she will be surrounded. She must train herself to get the basic norm of right and wrong and guide her actions accordingly.