Analysis of morality and accountability in legal study case
Plasma International Company is in the middle of a dilemma, both moral and corporate. Plasma International provides "safe, uncontaminated and reasonably priced whole blood and blood plasma" to disaster areas as well as to other people in need. It seems that this company has turned to local African tries to provide a pure blood supply at prices as low as 90 cents per pint, and resells it to desperate hospitals for $150 per pint. Politicians and the media were having a "field day" with this latest-breaking story. The local community of Tampa, Florida is in an uproar, and has demanded that Plasma International's licenses to practice business be revoked. One of the company's founders, Sol Levin, has already been called into testify before the House Subcommittee on Medical Standards regarding Plasma International's "sale of blood for profit."Some of the issues hotly debated include the moral abuses of the naive African persons, the "exorbitant" profit netted, and the company's earning from others' pain. Community leaders and spokespersons have expressed their shock at Plasma International taking advantage of the "poor" Africans, by paying them a pittance for their blood. The company counteracts with tribal chieftains, after ne
Giving people what they are due is justice, the next framework. It is often figured by using the veil of ignorance method. When an unbiased opinion is submitted, since the person dies what is "fair" and "just" regardless of societal standings, this is a veil of ignorance. Two kinds of justice are at work in this case - compensatory (payment for suffering) and distributive (if resources and gains are divided equally, the process to find them is negligible). Plasma International is attempting to compensate the Africans for their donations with a payment of 90 cents per pint of blood. Despite the fact that the Tampa community thinks this is unfair, it may be pleasing to the tribe. Often times money has little worth in these areas, and the African people may merely be happy to aid their fellow man. A way to satiate the Tampa public would be to insure distributive justice. By sharing profits earned, the Africans would be "business partners" rather than "servants." Opposing the Stakeholder Theory is the Integrated Social Contracts Theory. This declares that a hypothetical contract defines an existing implicit contract among members of specific communities. It is often referred to as the "is"/"ought" - empirical cases are influenced by normative models which declare the ideals of the situation. Encouraged by bounded moral responsibility - human capacity, ethical truth, and the artificiality of economic systems - the contracts are divided into microsocial and macrosocial. Microsocial is the shared agreements of morality related to specific transactions, while macrosocial handles hypernorms and universally acceptable procedures. Since, empirically, we would not want the "human rights violations" to be widespread, this could not be a macrosocial contract. The macrosocial contract influences the microsocial, thereby making the agreement to buy and sell the blood at grossly inappropriate prices null and void. The microsocial contract cannot contradict its controlling policy; the larger policy must be dominant. Moral laws tend to side with the people of Tampa. it states that an action is morally right if it has the proper form: consistent, universal, respectful, priori (not based on experience), and stemming from the autonomy of "rational beings." Moral law contracts bind unconditionally to these terms. By applying it to Plasma International's situation, one can deduce that their procedures do not fit these standards. If every company needed inexpensive "supply" went to a third-world nation to buy it, there would be more human rights violations. This is comparable to the sweatshop uproar, in which unknowing persons, desperate for survival, worked excessively for pennies in pay. This is an illegal trade, but that did not stop Nike, Reebok, and Kathie Lee Clothing from utilizing this method. Clearly, by paying minimal fees to workers, you can run a successful international business, but it is immoral. Moral law will not allow people to be universally subjected to injury and "theft." In the purchase scenario, those involved are the African tribesmen, the government of the African nation, the United States government, and Plasma International Company. The company researched and discussed its actions thoroughly with both the African government and the tribes. The people agreed to sign the contract and sell blood for "as low as 90 cents per pint." In most African nations, money has little value, and is used sparingly. Prices in this area are sharply lower. By our standards, we are taking advantage of these people, but in their minds, we may be giving them sufficient funds. Their government approved, and so we must assume that they note the value of money with respect to the area. In this sense, Plasma International is promoting the local economy and receiving a needed supply of healthy blood for distribution. This may, however, further promote the international usage of third-world labor. If each company went through the pr
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Approximate Word count = 2667
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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