Warped view of right and wrong

There are often media reports of events in which issues of ethics are involved. These reports often trigger debates among media critics and Internet surfers. In the debates, "human nature" and "human right" are frequently mentioned. In many cases, however, these two concepts are abused.

A few days ago, a teacher posted an article at the www.tianya.cn website telling of his experience in the earthquake that struck Sichuan on May 12. He was giving a lecture in a classroom on an upper floor of a middle school in Dujiangyan when the building trembled. He dashed out of the classroom and hurried downstairs to the playground to find that he was the first to have escaped to safety.

Later, answering a student who accused him of leaving his pupils behind in danger, he said: "I am one who pursues freedom and fairness rather than one who will sacrifice his life to save others. Faced with the choice between life and death, I would possibly consider to sacrifice my life only if it were to save my daughter; I wouldn't care about anybody else even if she was my mother." He then said: "This may sound like finding excuses for myself, but I haven't the slightest sense of guilt."