ELP journal

On last wednesday, we discussed about ethics in our class. We learned about 6 ethical theories. I've had heared of some of these theories in a NHK TV program called "Harverd 白熱教室"(Harvard's Heated Discussion Classroom). This program shows a class of Justice, which is thought by professor Michael Sandel, at Harvard. I like topics such as philosophy, ethics and moral, so I was happy to get a chance to learn about the subject in class. An activity we did was to read a story and examine what ethical theory you use when making decisions. The story is about a diamond mine which open up for public once a year. One day, while couple of visitors are inside the mine, an earthquake occures and they become trapped inside the mine. The only way to save the visitors is to pull them up by using a rope. After reading the story, we were given all descriptions about all 13 visitors, from their age to their personal relationships. Based on these information, we were asked to decide who to put the visitors in numbers in the order of priorities of saving them. It was amazing how we thought differently and in my group, although we had discussed for about 20 minuts, we couldn't reach to a single agreement.
I would like to know if there are specific reasons to determine one's ethical theory.