The Courage to Make Ethical Decisions

Theology student Alina Ring has an unusual part-time job. The 26-year-old is a chaplain in the Swiss Armed Forces. If, for example, a recruit wants to talk, she travels to Infantry School 12 in Chur. The conversation might be about military or personal problems. 

As a chaplain, Alina Ring is bound to professional secrecy. Having said that, if the conversation reveals that someone is a danger to themself or others, she can break the duty of secrecy – but she is not obliged to. “Luckily, this situation has never occurred so far,” says Ring. “Because it’d pose an ethical dilemma for me: Should I respect the fact that someone has told me something in confidence? Or is the priority to protect a life that may be at risk?”

Alina Ring frequently faces these sorts of ethical questions, both in her private life and in her studies, from deciding what causes to donate to, to forming an opinion on assisted suicide. As part of her theology degree she already attended a compulsory course on ethics but she says she felt it didn’t equip her to actually make ethical decisions. And she is sure that she will also face such questions in her chosen profession as pastor and prison chaplain. 

In order to gain more confidence in handling ethical decisions, she enrolled on the module Ethics and Responsibility – Ethical Judgment and Moral Competence. The UZH Institute of Social Ethics offered the module for the first time in the 2025 Spring Semester. Some 30 students from various disciplines took part.

“We want to raise participants’ awareness of ethical aspects in decision-making, and equip them to make such decisions,” says Lea Chilian, senior teaching and research assistant at the Institute of Social Ethics and coordinator of the module. Chilian is convinced that making ethical decisions is becoming increasingly important in today’s world. One of the main reasons for this is globalization, as it makes interconnections more complex. For example, the food and clothes I choose to buy have an environmental and social impact all over the world. What’s more, these days we are confronted with a host of moral concepts on which we are supposed to have an opinion.

As well as globalization, technological progress also raises new questions, such as how much a medical treatment should cost, and what decisions we should delegate to artificial intelligence. “Ethical competence is particularly important for students as academics often work in jobs with a great deal of responsibility and decision-making power – and that concerns all fields of study,” says Chilian.

“Doing justice to the complexity of an ethical decision requires in-depth reflection” says Chilian. A good decision is characterized by an attempt to take account of all aspects and actors related to an issue. And because every academic discipline has its own questions and often its own set of values, it makes sense to engage across disciplines and to explore the fundamental principles of decision-making. 

The Ethics and Responsibility module involved teaching staff from the disciplines of philosophy – with its specialist field of ethics and medical ethics, for example – and theology. Guests were also invited to talk about how they approach ethical issues in their work – for example a lawyer from a software firm. 

For Alina Ring, the opportunity to look beyond disciplinary borders was particularly valuable. This is because her subject – theology – deals with the Christian values system, in which charity and a willingness to forgive are pivotal. “But when it comes to weighing up these values in a specific case and reaching an ethical decision, theology doesn’t offer any models,” says Ring. She therefore found it all the more valuable to learn about the models of ethical decision-making, as developed in philosophy, for example.

The seminars aimed to help students find their own individual way of making coherent ethical decisions. “We aim to provide students with a toolbox of different methods,” says Chilian. 

Alina Ring found a good solution in the toolbox in the form of a specific ethical decision-making method. This method involves gathering facts, naming the problem, analyzing and weighing up the arguments, and making a decision. At the same time, the course helped Ring gain clarity on her own values – an essential step in decision-making. She now knows that solidarity, forgiveness, equality, kindness and authenticity are what matter most to her. 

The course participants also completed a piece of written work in small interdisciplinary groups which was designed to sensitize them to ethical arguments. Their task was to interview a person of their choosing about how they make ethical decisions in their day-to-day work. Alina Ring was part of a team of three that chose a topic that was particularly interesting to her. Working with a doctoral student in psychology and a music history student, she interviewed a recruitment psychologist from the Swiss Armed Forces.

After completing the module, Alina Ring concludes that it takes courage to make ethical decisions, but that models and theories provide reassurance. It didn’t become any easier for her to make such decisions. In fact, the course taught her how complex ethical dilemmas can be. This is a familiar experience for instructor Lea Chilian: “With interdisciplinary courses, students often have more questions afterwards than they did beforehand. But that’s a good sign – it means they have recognized the multifaceted nature of a topic,” says Chilian. 

Alina Ring now feels more confident with her new set of tools when it comes to ethical questions. Coming back to her initial dilemma, she is unable to give a general answer to the question of whether in an emergency she would break her duty of secrecy as a military chaplain. What she does know is that there is not just one answer: “But after completing this module, I’d be able to keep a cool head, think the situation through, and be able to own my decision.”