It is the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.
2. ethics (used with a sing. verb) The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy. 3. ethics (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession: medical ethics. Ethics are moral beliefs and rules about right and wrong. When you use ethics with this meaning, it is a plural noun. You use a plural form of a verb with it. Such action was a violation of medical ethics. Ethics is also the study of questions about what is morally right or wrong. When ethics has this meaning, it is an uncount noun. You use a singular form of a verb with it. We are only too ready to believe that ethics is a field where thinking does no good. 3. 'ethical'. Ethic is never an adjective Ethics is not the study of what is legal or socially accepted or tolerated; it is the study of what is right and wrong -- in the sense of trying to discover reasonable general principles that will help us decide what we ought to do and what we ought not to do in all cases.  Ethics or moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The term ethics derives from the Ancient Greek word ἠθικός ethikos, which is derived from the word ἦθος ethos (habit, “custom”). The branch of philosophy axiology comprises the sub-branches of Ethics and aesthetics, each concerned with concepts of value. Post-structuralism and postmodernism argue that ethics must study the complex and relational conditions of actions. A simple alignment of ideas of right and particular acts is not possible. There will always be an ethical remainder that cannot be taken into account or often even recognized. Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy. Post-structuralism and postmodernism argue that ethics must study the complex and relational conditions of actions. A simple alignment of ideas of right and particular acts is not possible. There will always be an ethical remainder that cannot be taken into account or often even recognized. Normative ethics is the study of ethical action. It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking.  A. Descriptive Ethics or Morals: a study of human behavior as a consequence of beliefs about what is right or wrong, or good or bad, insofar as that behavior is useful or effective. In a sense, morals is the study of what is thought to be right and what is generally done by a group, society, or a culture. In general, morals correspond to what actually is done in a society. 1. Morals is best studied as psychology, sociology, or anthropology. Different societies have different moral codes Ethics is a term. Many people think ethics has to do with a set of social conventions or a religious decree. In professional philosophy we do not typically consider this to be the definition of ethics. Philosophical ethics could be called the study of what is good and bad.  Tweet. : rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad. ethics: an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior: a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong. : a belief that something is very important. Full Definition of ETHIC. 1. plural but sing or plural in constr: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. 2. c: a guiding philosophy. Another way of defining 'ethics' focuses on the disciplines that study standards of conduct, such as philosophy, theology, law, psychology, or sociology. For example, a medical ethicist is someone who studies ethical standards in medicine. 
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ethics http://www.garlikov.com/philosophy/ethpoint.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normative_ethics http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/types.html https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Philosophy/What_is_Ethics http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/
ethics is the study of what is