Social ethics is the systematic reflection on the moral dimensions of social structures, systems, issues, and communities. Social ethics can be thought of as a branch of ‘applied ethics,’ the application of  ethical reasoning to social problems. A typical list of the kinds of
issues addressed under the rubric of social ethics includes the distribution of economic goods, research on human subjects, animal
rights, euthanasia, abortion, discrimination and affirmative action, pornography, crime and punishment, and war and peace.