Ethics

A detailed Summary of Ethics


In the late sixty's, pushed by competition, the Ford Motor Company made a decision to design a new subcompact car, the Pinto. Their main goal was to build a car that would be below 2,000 pounds and sell for less than 2,000 dollars. They shortened the time for preproduction testing and development from forty-three months to a little over two years that revealed the gas tank had been put in an unsafe position close to the rear bumper. When the Ford Company crash tested the Pinto it revealed that there was a possibility of the fuel tank being punctured in an accident, and the spray sparks could ignite gasoline and set the vehicle on fire. Despite that the company went on with production of the Pinto as designed, since it "met all applicable federal safety standards." Since 1972 nearly fifty-four persons had died in accidents involving Pinto fires and many had been severely burnt. Among these people were Mrs. Lilly Gray, who died a few days after an accident, and Richard Grimshaw, who survived the accident, but was severely burnt


When the car was put on the market the costumers were not informed that the car was not safe for driving. Another ethical law, the Law of Autonomy, was broken. According to Principle of Respect for Autonomy, "One ought to enable others to decide and act autonomously... with a substantial understanding of the circumstances and likely outcomes of their decisions and actions," and these decisions and actions should be "free of undue controlling influences." If potential buyers of this car were informed of the problem they have a choice whether of not to buy the car; whether or not to risk their own lives and the lives of others.

Considering the Principle of Utility that states, "One ought always to produce the greatest possible balance of value over disvalue with respect to all persons involved," it is obvious that the value the Ford Company was using was money. The human life was the less important value. The management of the Ford Company did not use the Principle of Utility properly, because they only respected what was of the importa

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 705
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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