Assignment task:
John Stevens is the CEO for Pro Magic Corporation, a manufacturing company located off the coast of Mexico in a town called Vista Buena with 5000 residents. The company had been struggling for years until they went into a partnership with a company called Nu Clear Corp located in the United States. Since then, Pro Magic has been revitalized and has been able to expand their manufacturing capabilities and hire more employees. Pro Magic is now one of the largest employers in their town employing over a third of their residence. The town's other main source of revenue comes from fishing (as well as a main source of their food diet). The partnership with Nu Clear has also been a blessing to the town. Nu Clear has built the two main hospitals in town and provide ongoing funding to support its operations. They also helped to open four elementary schools in town. Without their support, the town would be ill-equipped to deal with illnesses and injuries as well as to teach their young children. John felt like he was on top of the world. He has a great job and was able to live with his wife and two kids (age 5 and 7) in a beautiful city and enjoy the water.
One day, John received a phone call from someone who wished to remain anonymous. She claimed that she worked for Nu Clear so it was not safe for her to reveal her true identify, however she was really concerned for the well-being of our town. She didn't know who to turn to so she wanted to tell John. This person went on to state that Nu Clear has been secretly sending sealed barrels of their chemical waste and dumping them off the shores of Vista Buena over the last 6 months. They are able to do it because they are using Pro Magic as the reason and channel for all their activity in Mexico. They are continuing to do it to avoid the expensive waste disposal guidelines in the U.S. She's not sure of how securely these barrels have been sealed but if they leak, the chemicals are likely to kill fish and ocean life in the surrounding areas or alter them. If humans eat the fish or swim in the water when it is contaminated, they are sure to get very ill and develop life threatening diseases.
John was truly concerned so he hired a private investigator to monitor the shores of Buena Vista for weeks (day and night) and was shocked to find that these claims were all true.
John was at a loss. If he calls Nu Clear and confronts them about this or reports them to the US regulatory authorities, they may be heavily fined or shut down. Either way, they will definitely pull out of their partnership with Pro Magic and over 1500 employees will be out of a job. The entire town will also directly suffer from this situation. In addition, he also just heard word from the local hospital that there have been five cases of illness and they haven't been able to figure out the cause.
Ethics of Care
How would John Stevens' issue be solved from this point of view. Give examples from the prompt and the textbook. You are allowed to use references from the internet, but they must be cited.
Thoroughly define and discuss this perspective.
Additional ethical issues may be relevant to this case. What approach or approaches would be best for this situation and what would you advise John to do?