Question 1. You developed and placed into the threaded discussions your personalized ethics statement of what has become important to you in the practice of ethics as you have practiced ethics during the course. Your first task in this question is to briefly present that personalized statement in just a few sentences before continuing with the question. Much of the rest of the exam will involve your working with that personalized statement through brief applications and cases.Use your ethical philosophy to solve the following ethical situation. Explain how your philosophy helped you make your decision.
Given the continuing threat that nuclear weapons pose for humanity and the global environment, is it ever ethically acceptable for scientists to engage in research and development work on such weapons?
Discuss the conditions, if any, under which it would be acceptable.
Explain and defend your position, and then explain how your ethical philosophy helped you or affected how you answered this question.
Question 2. Analyze the following ethical situation using YOUR ethical philosophy. Read the situation and then in your answer, explain why this is an ethical situation, what the "issues" are, and how an "ethical" person would resolve them. Explain how YOUR ethical philosophy has helped you read a conclusion about how to resolve or analyze this situation. Employees' worth to their employers may diminish before they are eligible for retirement. In such cases, the employer is faced with the dilemma of choosing between retaining an old and trusted yet unproductive worker for 5 or 10 more years, or firing that worker and jeopardizing his or her retirement benefits.
1. Should an employer have an ethical obligation to keep such unproductive, but loyal employees? What if the employee had been a problem his or her entire career? Are there certain circumstances where your answer to these questions would be different?
2. What is the duty of an unproductive employee to his or her employer? Is there an ethical obligation to retire when productivity begins to wane? If a person is simply "coasting" for his or her last few years, is that person "unethical?" Be sure to explain your answer.
Question 3. How do you feel Ayn Rand would have solved the above ethical situation differently or the same as you did using your philosophy? Please explain the reasons for the similarities or differences.
Question 4. A first-term junior senator has placed a bill before the Senate that promises to correct tax inequities that affect thousands of workers. However, the bill is being held up in committee. The senior senator who serves as Sub-Committee Chairperson is responsible. The senator, however, has learned of a secret scandal in the Chairperson's personal life. The junior senator visits the Chairperson and tells him that unless the bill is released from committee, he will divulge the scandal to the press. The Chairperson then releases the bill from committee and it is passed-and becomes law.Identify and tell what ethical philosophy the senior and junior senators are using, if any.
Now, use your ethical philosophy to analyze the situation. Explain how, using your philosophy, you would have solved this situation either the same way as the characters in the situation did, or differently. Why?
Question 5. You work for a grocery store and a new manager is hired to oversee your department. He comes into your department (the butcher shop) and explains to you that for the past 6 months, your department has been losing money for the store because of the waste and spoilage going on from having to discard unsold meat and poultry. He tells you that from now on, he wants you to package ground meat in smaller, more compact packages, with older meat on the bottom of the package (so it is not visible to the customer) and the fresher meat on the top, where it is visible to the customers. In this way, you can move more of the older meat and still receive the top dollar for it. As he leaves the department where you were having the discussion, he turns and says, "And by the way, one more month of losses like we had last month from this department, and you can kiss your job goodbye." Will you repackage the meat in the way he requested?
Question 6. Why or why not? Explain what ethical analysis you used to come to this conclusion.
Analyze your answer above using the Front Page of the Newspaper ethical dilemma resolution model. Show your steps.