Moral Obligations, Research Paper Example

Introduction

It has long been upheld that the affluent countries of the developed world have a moral obligation to assist those countries in the third or developing world. Given the world financial situation there are strong counter arguments starting to develop against financial aid to the third world. The UK is one example of where people are starting to say charity begins at home. For example the UK offers £300 million in aid to India each year, an estimated figure of around £2 billion in aid to Africa and many millions of £ to other corrupt regimes around the world. Given high unemployment in the UK – would this money be better spent on job creation at home? (Conbustible, 2013).

A similar position is also being asserted in the USA. A strong belief that a moral responsibility cannot be imposed upon one nation to that of another. America is already in a financial unstable position and every effort should be focused inwards to help and recover internal economic problems.

The Counter Argument

America is essentially built upon a foundation of immigrants from people and cultures throughout the world. It should not take on the moral responsibility for developing countries throughout the world. This falls under the mantle of the United Nations. Nevertheless, as one of the most powerful nations on Earth it should be an advocate for help and international aid to those in need. We are now a global community and we should be helping our fellow humans in important areas like Health and Medical Advancement, Food and Nutrition, Advanced technology to help developing countries progress and make them more self-sufficient. The situations in countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda need to be addressed on both a moral and humanitarian basis.

One argument is that we are forever trying to resolve short term world crisis like starvation in Ethiopia by the provision of food aid and shelter. This without looking at the underlying causative factors of over population (birth control), ways for sustainable living i.e. farming, fishing, healthy water supplies and how the people can develop within communities to help and fend for themselves. The current situation involves massive drains of international aid monies without offering sustainable solutions to the problem. (Barry, B. 1980).

Personal Viewpoint

We are a world or global community and as such we have a moral value to help each other survive as a species. This does mean the rich countries of the developed world helping and assisting those countries of the third and developing world. We extract a lot of raw materials from these countries and as such we should try and help them. It should not be the burden of any single nation but rather a shared responsibility worked out through dialogue in the United Nations.

Another big argument is that a lot of the financial aid provided to third world countries does not reach the intended people. This often gets syphoned off by corrupt regimes and the people continue to suffer. If we are to be successful we need to address the root causes of the problems like birth control, helping to build sustainable facilities like hospitals and medical centres, food distribution centres and the provision of UN Security troops to safeguard these facilities in order that the people may benefit and ultimately develop more longer term sustainable solutions.

References

Barry, B. (1980). Do Countries Have Moral Obl igations? The Tanner Lectures on Human Values (pp. 1-20). Boston: Harvard University.

Conbustible. (2013, 1 28). UK: Reduce “Government’s moral obligations to the Third World. Retrieved from Conbustible: http://conbustible.com/2012/08/uk-reduce-governments-moral-obligations-to-the-third-world/