Ethics Knowledge Needed Flashcards
Utilitarian position CSR
Deny community aspect but accept environmental aspect. Bentham - minimum wage, but generally against restrictions of the free market
Friedman position
No CSR - only responsibility is profit while staying legal
CSR = ‘hypocritical window dressing’
All you need are free choice and transparency
Ford Pinto
$49.5 million for all deaths, $140 million to repair all cars
Adam Smith on GEIGB
Long term ethics improves reputation so should do it - utilitarian perspective. Ultimately focussed on profit because he wrote about the alienation of products etc.
Give two examples of whistleblowing
Sherron Watkins at Enron - using ‘raptor’ accounts to hide massive losses, overstating $591 million dollars of profit
Frances Haugen - ‘Facebook Files’ - ‘we make body issues worse for one in three girls’
PepsiCo two key terms
Countertrade - had to get money out by investing in government-run farms (slave labour etc)
Constructive engagement - hoped their involvement would pressure the military to change their ways
Bangladesh factory
Rana Plaza - collapsed
Free trade and poverty statistics
Extreme poverty - 70% in 1960 vs 17% in 2012
Strong Sanctity of Life evidence
1 Corinthians 6:19 - your body is a temple…
Human life is a gift or loan - Job (Augustine says if anyone kills themselves they are unwilling to suffer as Job did)
Thou shalt not murder
Imago dei!
Evangelium Vitae - ‘culture of death’.
Slippery Slope
- Anthony Fisher - euthanasia continues to get extended. Holland - euthanasia legalised for terminally ill but ten years later extended to babies with severe illnesses.
- Culture of death - 2022, two Canadians who had mental conditions but who had insufficient financial support applies for euthanasia. (Criticism of society which doesn’t give enough support)
- Eugenics threat if rules are not enforced completely?
- Undermines respect for human life!
Quality of Life
Happiness, autonomy and consciousness
Peter Singer on QoL
Human is not necessarily a person
Peter Singer QOL commandments
- Human life value varies
- Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions
- Respect a person’s desire to live or die
- Bring children into the world only if they are wanted
- Do not discriminate on the basis of species
3 criticisms of NL
- ‘Do not act as if they really believe it’
- Outdated?
- Difference between forseen and intended effects!
Counters to Situation Ethics on Euthanasia
- Love is subjective and hard to measure
- People are not perfectly loving so will do cruel and selfish things
