Assignment No. 6
Business Ethics 1203304
Question 1:
Vignette 1: Suppose a person’s uncle has an incurable and painful disease. The uncle, who
owns and manages a chemical plant, will die as a result of the disease within a year. Although
the uncle is miserable, he does not wish to terminate his own life. Because of the uncle’s
misery, he deliberately makes life miserable for his workers and he refuses to install needed
safety equipment, although he knows that this will mean the certain death of some
employees. The nephew is the uncle’s only living relative and so will inherit the uncle’s
business when the uncle dies. The nephew knows about the uncle’s treatment of employees,
and plans to install the needed safety equipment as soon as he takes over the business.
Is it ethical for the nephew to murder the uncle? For each yes or no, you are to present pro
and against the first rationale.
Please present your argument from numerous ethical theoretical perspectives:
Utilitarianism perspective
Human rights perspective
Based on the above, what advantage you would reckon by including other moral principles
in the original utilitarianism framework.
Question 2:
Vignette 2: Supposed the employer is considering hiding from employees the dangerous
nature of some chemicals that are used in production. The company also regularly dumps
pollution into a river nearby.
Discuss the ethical state of the employer from the Utilitarianism perspective from the
following angle of rationalization, in view of the employees who need to deal with the
production processes that involve these harmful chemicals:
Information given to fully inform of the relevant facts
Externalities – which encompass external benefits or external costs, i.e. benefits or
costs realized by people other than
What is the role of the government to rectify or cushion the impact on the externalities?
Discuss the ethical state of the employer from the Kant’s Categorical Imperative
perspectives of the Principle of Rights from the following angle of rationalization, in view
of the employees who need to deal with the production processes that involve these harmful
chemicals – namely, irreversible, universalizable and with-respect treatment.
Discuss the ethical state of the employer from the Distributive Justice perspective, in terms
of egalitarianism and libertarianism.
Discuss the ethical state of the employer from the Caring Principle of Ethics.
Discuss the ethical state of the employer from the Virtue Theory, both as character and in
action domains.
Question 3:
3.1 Explain the Principle of Rights.
3.2 Explain the following characteristics of the Principle of Rights:
A right is an entitlement.
The function of a right is to protect a person’s interests.
Rights as duty.
3.2 Explain Kant’s Categorical Imperative, in the domains of reversible, universalizable, and
treatment of those who are affected with respect, in ways that the affected person has freely
consented to be treated, to explain the Rights of people in the decision making.
Question 4:
Explain the Principle of the Distributive Justice, that captures domains of benefits and costs
of an action, and illustrate with simple examples in the view of egalitarianism, capitalism,
socialism, libertarianism, and Rawl’s three principles of distributive justice (equal liberty
principle, equal opportunity principle, and the difference principle).
Question 5:
Explain why it is unethical for a manager to refuse to hire a well-qualified applicant for
employment because of prejudice against some characteristics that is irrelevant for the job
(such as prejudice against the applicant’s race), from the following angles of the principles of
ethics:
Utilitarianism
The reversibility test of Kant’s Categorical Imperative of the principles of rights
The universalizability test of Kant’s Categorical Imperative of the principles of rights
The respect and free consent test of Kant’s Categorical Imperative of the principles of
rights
The egalitarian perspective of the principle of distributive justice
The capitalist perspective of the principle of distributive justice
The libertarianism perspective of the principle of distributive justice
The socialist perspective of the principle of distributive justice
Rawl’s principle of distributive justice
The caring principle
Virtue theory