Ethics are cultural and in essence, relative. And ethics can be either good or bad.
There is no binary source of ethics. Stealing food from a grocery store - generally bad. Stealing food from a grocery store when there is no money and to feed a starving baby, generally good.
The question I ask myself is this: will this cause harm or good? If both, will it be more helpful to the one of the two that is most marginalized or will it help the oppressive person or system?
Not saying my position is a universal mandate for anyone else but this is how I choose to live. Which means yes, I am the source of what I deem is right and wrong. FYI, so does EVERY PERSON who lives. They might cloak it in "God's Word" but it is ultimately their choice to determine the source, its interpretation and application, hence making the choice of ethics a relative one.
To have absolute binary knowledge is original sin: to be like God, knowing good and evil, determining who is in and who is out.
Of course there is contradiction in that because to determine the empire is out or say, sexual predators are out is a part of "playing God" so humanity has no choice but to be its own god. So yes, I am a contradiction.