At his trial in January 1998, Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty and was spared the death penalty. However, he showed no remorse for his crimes and was sentenced to four life sentences plus thirty years.
The US government awarded David $1 million for helping them bring the Unabomber to justice. David used most of this money to help the families of his brother’s victims and the rest to cover his legal costs.
As David Kaczynski discovered, the first step in making a moral decision is to try to put aside how you feel. Then you must calmly and carefully look at all the factors involved. This can be very difficult to do, but it is necessary.
What follows is a checklist of questions you should ask yourself before making a moral decision: Situation:
Information: Guidance: Aim:
Motive: Method: Impact:
What exactly is the problem facing me? Do I have all the relevant facts? Where can I get reliable advice? What do I want to achieve? Why am I doing this?
What is the best way to achieve this? How will my actions affect other people?
Only after going through this process should you follow your conscience.
The Meaning of Conscience
REMEMBER! Conscience is your capacity to apply your knowledge and values to a particular situation and decide what the right thing to do is.
Whenever you stop to think about your actions and decide what you should do, you are using your conscience. However, as you have free will, you can choose either to follow your conscience or to ignore it.
To follow your conscience means choosing to do what you believe is right. To ignore your conscience means choosing to do what you believe is wrong.
