Posted: June 28th, 2015

Ethical Questions

Ethical Questions

Paper details:

Aanswer each questions, at least 1/2 page each with a citation in each. I provided 2 articles.
Please use for the Smyth Saga reference…
1.Freeman, J.M., & McDonnell, K. (2001). Tough Decisions: Cases in medical Ethics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2.The Moral Muteness of Managers (Bird and Waters)
Donaldson, T., & Werhane, P. H. (2008). Ethical issues in business: A philosophical approach (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Please label each question prior to the answers as Question #1, etc
1. In the Bird and Waters article, mention is made of managers who, even when actually working from a moral context, often mask their morality and explain their actions as if they were simply talking practical matters or looking after business. The implication here is that many managers hide their moral beliefs and motives. Their research reveals that ethical discussion is not common in the business world, at least on the broader level. And yet, business (as does law and medicine) cannot possibly avoid ethical issues on a daily basis. Now look at the diagram on p. 336. Why is Quadrant II classified as the “hypocrisy” quadrant? What is the hypocrisy here? Why is Quadrant IV classified as “moral muteness”? What does this imply?

2. What are the three major causes of moral muteness according to the authors? What are the fears in each case which lead to moral muteness?

3. So the morally mute manager seeks to preserve harmony, efficiency, and practical power. But his moral muteness has detrimental consequences. Look at the five consequences mentioned by our authors on p. 340. Summarize and reflect on each one of them, and then state which ones seem most costly and detrimental to you in your given profession and experience.

4. Bird and Waters suggest several ways to correct moral muteness? What are they? Elaborate.

5. Now let’s look at the Smyth case (do yourself a favor and make a chart of all the names like I did to keep everybody straight. If not, you might think you are going bonkers as well). What about Virginia’s initial concerns? Would you not want to bring a child into the world who 40-50 years later “might” die of Huntington’s? Explain.

6. Now what of Virginia’s emotional attack at the end? Do you think her anger is justified? Robert certainly has some things to think through as well. Could some of this have been avoided had there been less moral muteness in Family Smyth? Explain.