Ethics Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Ethics Assignment - Essay ExampleThis is the salient issue for Rockwoods suit against Becton Dickinson The distinction betwixt rights and responsibilities. Case Facts Rockwoods suit against Dickinson has a long history, but the issue is simple. Dickinson did not create a wide enough range of sizes for their patented product, causing hospitals to quite embrace unsafe practices with needlepricking instead of the Dickinson safety syringe. Rockwood alleges that doing so led directly and predictably to injury. The legal issues behind this are obviously complex, but the ethical issues are possible to discuss. The assumptions behind the allegation of Dickinsons liability are clear. Ethical Issues Issues at stake here are 1. Public health. Its not just that Rockwood got flush, but she got sick with a communicable disease. 2. Corporate strategy. Corporations need to pursue a wide range of strategies in the marketplace without fear of eventual suing simply because they didnt offer a produc t. 3. The bounds of the law. Law should only be able to go so far in legislating morality. Ethical Dilemma Should the Court violate Dickinsons authorisation right to pursue their product array as they see fit, or should they take them to task for failing to protect Rockwood? Analysis A rights-based analysis would forget differing opinions dep devastationing on the rights they enshrine. Someone emphasizing rights to life, health or responsible treatment might argue that Rockwood not only has a right to pursue a suit and receive compensation but also an obligation to do so. But many rights-based analyses such as market libertarians analyses would emphasize the rights of the company to provide the services they wish. Advocates like Milton Friedman, Nozick and Murray Rothbard would argue that Dickinson had made a calculation, even if misguided or potentially immoral or callous, that they would not provide the services and goods they created with their take hard work in a particular fashion. This is their inviolable right, in this view, and thus they cannot be sued or brought to task legally in any fashion. Dickinson was upstanding their only obligation worth discussing The obligation to their shareholders. Under this view, an individual has absolute control over their labor and property. Whatever they made under conditions of justice (e.g. no theft, fraud or embezzlement) is theirs. Dickinson had no responsibility to provide a different product. It is absurd to take them to court for not providing a product They did no amiss(p) and in fact performed their duty Enlarging market share for shareholders. A utilitarian analysis, on the other hand, would point out that what Dickinson did was not in the interest of the great good for the greatest number. Dickinson had no compelling reason They could have made more money by providing their safety needles in different sizes. The court should swayer in the favor of Rockwood, in the utilitarian view, as a matter of s ocial policy and justice What Dickinson did was unethical and inappropriate. A utilitarian might end up admitting that, under the law, Rockwood had no case, but still argue that Dickinson had committed wrong. Distributive justice is concerned with the distribution of goods across society