Fame & Fortune: Bruce 'The Ethics Guy' Weinstein Bankruptcy and other moral dilemmas of our times
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Bankrate: Here's a good one: Is one ethically obligated to re-pay his creditors after filing bankruptcy? Legally, he's off the hook, right?

Weinstein: In terms of re-paying debt, there are both legal and ethical aspects to keep in mind, but the ethical aspect transcends the legal one. For example, even if one files for bankruptcy and no longer has a legal obligation to repay one's creditors, that doesn't mean one does not have an ethical obligation to pay them back. When we borrow money, whether from a friend, relative or a bank, we're making a promise to re-pay our creditors. Even if bankruptcy laws allow us to wipe out our debt, the people who loaned us money did so in good faith and rightly expect to be re-paid. It comes down to a simple ethical rule, namely that we make a promise, we ought to keep it.

Whether we feel bound to honor the promise is a psychological question. Whether a law requires us to re-pay the debt is a legal question. Whether we should honor the promise is an ethical one. From an ethical perspective, it doesn't matter that one might not want to re-pay the debt, or that a successful bankruptcy filing means that we no longer have a legal obligation to do so. Ethics, which provides the ultimate standard for how we should conduct ourselves, requires us to keep our promises and, in this case, to re-pay our debts.

Bankrate: As The Ethics Guy, do you always immediately recognize the right thing to do? Was there one really memorable dilemma that stumped you? What did you do about it?

Weinstein: It is always easier to analyze another person's ethical quandaries than one's own, because when we're faced with a problem, our emotions can make it difficult to get the critical distance we need to look at what's really going on and to consider, fully, the options open to us.

Regarding a difficult dilemma someone presented to me: After I gave a speech to a group of physicians, a member of the audience came up to me and said, "My mother is very ill and wants me to help her commit suicide. What should I do?" My response was, "I trust that you will make the right decision."

Bankrate: Gut-check time: How do you recognize when you've made the wrong decision ethically, and what's the best way to redress your mistake?

Weinstein: If you've read this far, you are probably already a person of conscience, so if that voice in your head is telling you, "This is wrong," it's usually a good indicator that something is amiss. It is never too late to right a wrong. Depending on the infraction, the redress can be as simple as a sincere apology, or as difficult as fessing up to a poor decision with the understanding that one may have to accept dire consequences -- losing a relationship or a job, for example. At the end of the day, however, what else do we really have but our integrity?