Limitations of the Procedures
- Some cannot deal with situations that change rapidly while they are under analysis.
- Some make no provision for regression (backtracking) or for re-doing a step.
- Some expand to many thousands of small steps when used in complex situations.
- Some need elimination, simplification or other types of problem-reduction steps.
- Some cause conflicts and ambiguities to surface but offer no effective way to deal with these problems.
- Some require a high level of situational ethical awareness in the very first step.
- Some provide no way, in later stages, to update information developed at earlier stages.
- Some could benefit from doing certain steps in parallel.
- Some do not degrade gracefully under pressure of time.
- Some define the ethical issue too early in the process.
- Some implement only one approach to ethics (e.g., utilitarianism).
- Some try to determine moral relevance too early in the process.
- Some do not recognize destructive interactions between steps (e.g., when later steps invalidate earlier steps).
- Some fail to offer a quick resolution once a pivotal consideration has emerged.
- Some do not allow a fact or an assumption to be withdrawn once it has been introduced.
- Some have steps that appear to be out of order, in violation of prerequisites.
- Some require special training or knowledge.
- Some were designed for academic or training settings rather than for use in the field.
- Some weigh or rank considerations without telling us how the weighing or ranking is to be done.
- Some expect (or force) the issue to break into a dilemma, with exactly two basic alternatives.
