Review Assignment: Ethics - Potions & Ingredients (Essay)

Essay Prompt
Ethics concerns itself with the question of what is right and wrong.

Please consider how you think that society feels about the use of potions, how ingredients should be obtained and why certain potions are 'legal' whilst others are not.

Do you feel society is right or do you think there is room for improvement? Do you agree with the opinion society holds?

Please write a 500 word essay on YOUR VIEW of ethics in the use of Potions and Ingredients and explain why this is your view. Please do not confuse ethics with the safety rules discussed in the first lesson.

Your essay should follow a logical structure and include some ethical questions.

This essay does not require the use of a textbook or research, as it's an opinion piece.

Student Response

Potions & Ingredients - Right or Wrong?

Society today believes that they have the right to veto the use of certain potions and ingredients.

In some instances I feel that this is a good thing. For example; there are certain potions, ingredients and the process of getting these ingredients that are very harmful to everyone. But on the other hand, if we did not have these so called harmful potions then we could not experiment with them and therefore learn how to protect ourselves.

I will first of all give my reasons for why I think that society is right to veto some potions and ingredients.

If we did not have rules and regulations in place then there could be a lot of misuse of potions. I.E : Using them to kill or injure someone or for selfish reasons. Also the process of obtaining the actual ingredients could be extremely hazardous to the person getting the ingredient and the innocent people around the local area. Not everybody knows the effects and/or damage certain potions and ingredients could have on people and the surrounding areas so I believe that some more education could be useful to go alongside rules and regulations so that people would then know that their safety is being taken care of and it is not just a case of rules being made by people in government using their powers for their own selfish reasons.

My reasons why I feel that society is wrong to veto the use of certain potions and ingredients is a slightly more difficult question to answer.

The main reason why I feel that maybe society is perhaps wrong to prohibit certain potions and ingredients I would say is that does any one man or woman really have a right to say what is right or wrong. Is it not actually a persons basic human right to be able to do what that want when they want to? Also should we not all be able to go where we want to go and partake in any hobby or pastime of our choosing?

Take for instance a really evil person who has been committing various crimes, should they be denied the chance of a life saving potion just because they are classed as a criminal?

You could argue that perhaps this is a good reason for having rules and regulations in place, or maybe it just comes back to the complex issue of basic human rights?

I believe that that there should be a mixture of both rules, regulations and education so that not only can we protect everyone's physical being but also tackle the human rights side of the argument. If we all had more education in the fine art that is potion making then we would be more informed in helping us come to a decision in what is right or wrong in the use of these powerful and potentially dangerous substances. I feel that the issue of ethics is a very complex one and it comes down to the individual's own opinion and whether they have the common sense to be able to decide for themselves.