Formulating A Moraljudgement

Formulating a Moral Judgment

GB 507 Business Ethics

Ethics means different things to different people. “Simply stated, ethics refers to the standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in many situations in which they find themselves-as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals and so on” (Velasquez, 1988, n.p.). In the essay “Made in the U.S.A. вЂ"Dumped in Brazil, Africa, IraqвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ there are many ethically dilemmas that are presented. The behaviors as well as the future consequences of the companies that are participating in these activities need to be questioned. This paper will discuss my moral judgment against the practice of dumping products in other countries.

The essay “Made in the U.S.A. вЂ"Dumped in Brazil, Africa, IraqвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ focuses on the moral dilemma of dumping products that are banned or deemed too dangerous for usage in the United States. The essay mentioned a few products in particular that were dumped in mostly Third world countries. Some of the products were flame retardant pajamas that were banned in the U.S. due to the toxicity of the chemicals in them that were later found to cause kidney cancer in children, baby pacifiers that were known to cause choking in infants, tainted wheat and barley that was treated with an organic mercury pesticide, and the Dalkon Shield which caused women to get pelvic inflammatory infections, blood poisoning, and tubal pregnancies all of which can result in death. Companies who chose to dump their products abroad did this with the sole motivation for bigger profits. I personally feel that this practice is despicable.

I work in the women’s healthcare industry. One of the products that I sell is an intrauterine device called Mirena. The product has been on the market now for about six years in the United States and over eighteen years in Europe. The Dalkon Shield was one of the first IUD’s on the market in the early 1970’s. The adverse effects of this device on women were horrible. It caused multiple deaths, the loss of fertility, and infections due to its bad design and threading. Today, more than thirty years later the women of the United States still have not getting over the effects of the Dalkon Shield. To think that it was being given to women in other countries as an ends to a means to make a profit really makes me question the morals of these companies.

These practices are a violation of moral standards. “Moral standards concern the behavior that seriously affects the human well-being” (Shaw, 2008, p. 7). Moral standards have certain characteristics. First, moral standards differ in that they are concerned about human welfare, which can injure or benefit people. Second, moral standards take priority over other standards like self-interest. Third, moral standards soundness depends on the reasons that support or justify them (Shaw, 2008). Our moral standards often begin in early upbringing, how others around us behave, our culture, our own experiences and our views of the experiences of others.

Normative theories in ethics propose some ways of distinguishing right from wrong. They look at how our actions will affect others. Normative theories are divided into two categories; consequentialists and nonconsequentialists. Consequentialists look at situations be determining the moral rightness of an action. “If the consequences are good, then the action is right; if they are bad, the act is wrong” (Shaw, 2008, p. 44). Actions are determined be weighing the consequences of the future outcome. Which outcome will produce the best possible result. Nonconsequentialists contend that right and wrong are determined by more than just the consequences of your actions. I am by nature a consequentialist. The two consequentialist theories that are deemed most important are the egoism and utilitarianism.

“The view that equates morality with self-interest is referred to as egoism” (Shaw, 2008, p. 45). Egoists believe that an act is morally right if it promotes their self-interest. This can either be an individual or an organization. Egoism uses what will be gained as the standard of measuring the short and long term of an action’s rightness. So, if the action will produce more good for the individual or organization then it is deemed the right one. Egoism does not take into consideration the result of actions of others.

Today, egoism is looked upon poorly by philosophers and they would not advocate is for personal or organizational morality. There are problems with egoism. There are three objections to the practice of egoism. They are;

• Psychological egoism is not a sound theory.

• Ethical egoism is not really a moral theory at all.

• Ethical egoism ignores blatant wrongs (Shaw, 2008).

I am left to wonder why if it is not deemed to be a theory or ignore blatant wrong doings why do so many organizations practice it.

“Utilitarianism is the moral doctrine that we should always act to produce the greatest possible balance of good over bad for everyone affected by our action” (Shaw, 2008, p. 49). “Utilitarianism in its most basic version, often called act utilitarianism, states that we must