Human trafficking is a process of recruitment, transportation and harboring of people through the use of deception, violence or coercion and use of force on them to work. People are trafficked to different countries for different forms of manipulation such as forced marriage, prostitution, criminality, begging, forced organ removal, and others. According to the United States department of state, involuntary servitude remains the biggest sector of trafficking. Debt bondage is a form of human trafficking which entails the victim working by force in order to pay a dept. 28 percent of trafficked victims are children, 21 percent are men while the number of women trafficked is the highest with 51 percent. Out of all the numbers of trafficked individuals, 43 percent of them are trafficked domestically within the national borders. 72 percent of individuals who are lured into commercial sex industry are women. Since trafficking is an involuntary exercise, the will and rights of the individuals trafficked are not considered. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the ethical perspectives and ethical theories that can help reduce human trafficking.
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill proposed an ethical theory known as Utilitarianism. The theory states that consequences of actions should maximize benefits such as happiness, preferences or pleasure throughout the society. That action is deemed right or good if it increases the benefits while reducing harm. The method of delivering this utilitarianism ethical theory is by reasoning about the necessity for a particular value of happiness and standard decision procedure ( Cohen, & Ahn, 2016). In human trafficking, this theory is undermined. When individuals are transported with promises of good jobs with better pay, that turns out to be a lie at the end of it all. Their happiness is pegged on finding satisfaction by securing the promised job. However, that never come to pass, the preference the victims have is that of getting employed. By reaching the place or country they are promised to find a job, they are forced into commercial sex, labor and criminal activities. The worst of all is when some of them get their organs removed. Their sorrows are multiplied rather than maximizing the benefits. Thus, the utilitarianism ethical theory is breached.
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The utilitarianism theory denotes that, lying is wrong, because it fails to maximize benefits over harms for the greatest number affected. Ethics defines what is wrong and what is right. Therefore, wronging an individual means that the act is unethical. Ethical behaviors entail adhering to important principles that include fairness, dignity, equality, honesty and individual rights. Transporting people with good promises which are lies breaches ethical behaviors of honesty. No individual who bears more right than the other, hence, all people should be treated with equality. Denying workers their due pay, being forced to pay or participate in sexual activities without a personal consent is a breach of ethical behavior on equality and fairness. An ethical perspective such as Utilitarianism involves doing the greatest good for greatest number. It calls for promotion of human welfare. Therefore, a person, a group, an organization, or a country that fails to promote this ethical perspective may cause suffering to an individual who is unethical. Observing the ethical theory of utilitarianism will not only uphold ethical behaviors but also help to bring sanity in the society. When people understand and know well what is right and wrong, it becomes easier to differentiate a benefit or harm towards an individual.
Virtuous of kindness, honesty and respect are key elements in fighting human trafficking. People who respect others find it hard and difficult to abuse others either, physically, emotionally or psychologically. This is because respect calls for humanity, fairness, equality and love. Therefore, the group of people who traffic humans lacks individual respect and respect towards the victims. If the human traffickers respect themselves, the agony, suffering, and abuse the victims go through while in transit or at the place of slavery would have changed their mind and abandoned the vice. They tend to respect the returns which are money or the other benefits they derive from the trade more than the value of the individuals subjected to torture. People often have different opinions on what is right and what is wrong. Since this is what defines an ethical behavior, some individuals may argue that human trafficking is ethically upright. Despite the diverse perspectives in which people may have on issues. It only takes a sound mind to look at issues critically dissecting a problem as it is. Human trafficking defies what ethical theory on utilitarianism entails on maximizing the benefits of action towards an individual. Hence, it is unethical.
Kant’s deontology ethical theory focuses on wrongness or rightness of actions themselves. It is opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions ( Resnik, 2018). The question of rightness or wrongness was mentioned earlier, that people's perspectives on activities differ. The governments of nations that involve themselves in human trafficking should put strict measures to alleviate this menace. Families of those people who are the victim of human trafficking are left to suffer especially if the breadwinner of the families is taken away. The loss of losing a child that parent's face is sometimes so disturbing that some of them end up with depression or even death. Spouses quarrel from blames over the loss of their child which sometimes leads to domestic violence and eventual divorce. All this problem emanate from lack of proper will that human traffickers instigate. Deontology ethical theory tends to consider the moral character of an action. It holds on the assumption that at least some acts are morally obligatory regardless of their consequences from human welfare. A person who helps another person travel into another country with a good intention of getting employment, and upon reaching the destination the individual deviates from the primary goal. That act can be classified in the teleological ethics. This is because the original objective was to help the person, but the consequence turns out to be negative instead.
An excellent example of such scenarios is when some organizations involve themselves in linking job seekers to employers in different parts of the world. Expressions such as "duty for duty's sake" can be used. This is because the organizations perform the duties as per what they intended to do initially, and that is to help individuals secure jobs. For any consequence that may arise past this obligation, the organization involved cannot be held liable to breach of ethical behaviors. This is because the action was based on a reasonable will. However, looking at such a scenario from a utilitarianism perspective, it will be contradicting to look at both of them in one context. This is because utilitarianism approach focuses on human welfare based on the consequence of choices that people make. Although the deontology theory and utilitarianism perspective seek to guide people in the society on doing what is right, the context in which they are both used should help to infer the correct judgment on an issue. Deontology ethical theory is critical in assisting people to distinguish between the rightness and wrongness of an action (Maier, Schober, Simsa, & Millner, 2015). Judges in a court of law can also use this theory to determine whether an individual or an organization have acted against the law. The people who argue of not knowing the ethics of a particular action can use this theory to understand and practice acts that are based on reasonable will rather than looking on the consequence of action only.
Victims of human trafficking who end up in prostitution risk their lives not only in contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but they also risk the loss of consciousness (Kempadoo, Sanghera, & Pattanaik, 2015). Others engage in criminal activities such as drug peddling and burglary. They participate in this activities to pay debts, for survival or to acquire funds for their visas back home. Commercial sex, drug trafficking, and robbery are all unethical behaviors that deprive the victims of this actions their rights. Ethical practices tend to promote love and unity. Robbery with violence and drug trafficking are some of activities that dispossess love and unity in the society involved. The only way to alleviate some vices in a community is through raising the awareness towards the importance of upholding ethical behaviors in the community. Since ethical theories are instrumental in trying to help people understand what constitutes moral virtuous and practice, the society should promote the use of this theory in school, churches and the community. This can raise the level of knowledge on how to fight human trafficking and other issues that are closely related to it. By doing this, the society's ethical conducts can improve, and as a result, reduce the suffering associated with lack of ethics. It should be the obligation of a family unit, schools, religions, communities, companies' organizations, governments, and states to promote ethical behaviors. This can be done through teachings, condemning and punishing those who are found guilty of being involved in actions that undermine noble virtuous and conducts. As result of this, people may learn from it and consequently help to reduce acts that unethical.
References
Cohen, D. J., & Ahn, M. (2016). A subjective utilitarian theory of moral judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 145 (10), 1359.
Kempadoo, K., Sanghera, J., & Pattanaik, B. (2015). Trafficking and prostitution reconsidered: New perspectives on migration, sex work, and human rights . Routledge.
Maier, F., Schober, C., Simsa, R., & Millner, R. (2015). SROI as a method for evaluation research: Understanding merits and limitations. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , 26 (5), 1805-1830.
Resnik, D. B. (2018). Moral Theory. In The Ethics of Research with Human Subjects (pp. 53-85). Springer, Cham.
