Deontological ethics are morality identification regarding an individual’s social duties and are concerned with what people do in relation to the consequences. For example, a top-secret service software programmer in a country called Zulu discovers that some government officials want to launch a missile attack on the neighboring country, Delta, and he is the only person who has discovered it. His job is entitled to keep the software running and he is sworn not to let any security details out; therefore, this paper explains how to deal with such a situation. A top-secret service job entails maintaining loyalty to the employer, who is the Zulu government, at all costs according to deontological ethics. The software programmer took an oath that he could not interfere with any government actions in spite of the resulting consequences. However, this is an extreme situation that involves destroying millions of people’s lives. Similarly, such a situation could trigger World War III and destroy the international relations between Zulu and Delta states.
On the other hand, de-programming the missile launch will put the software programmer at high risk with his employers, which may amount to torture or even death. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative theory implies that the programmer should despise his deontological ethics and save human lives that are at a risk. Moral ethics requires an individual to make decisions that have subjective considerations according to the moral system. However, bearing in mind the magnitude of the matter, the programmer will hesitate to de-program the missile. The categorical imperative theory argues that the consequences of an action taken do not matter as compared to the individual’s intended motives to act in such a way. Therefore, the programmer should act in a morally positive motive and launch a missile into a neutral ground and salvage death and destruction of property that would cause chaos in the entire world.