Written Assignment C due by midnight, Sunday January 31 (3-6 pages, APA format): You work for an important government agency and you have certain skills that nobody else in your organization has. You are at home after normal business hours in the evening when you receive a call from your boss. You need to connect via the internet immediately to your agency’s computer system to deal with an emergency. Failure to address the problem within the next hour could cause damage or loss for millions of Americans. You rush to your computer at home, but your internet connection has crashed. You notice that you have a good signal from your neighbor’s wireless router and your neighbor has not enabled security. You try to call your neighbor but get no answer. You don’t have the neighbor’s cell phone number and their house is dark. Should you connect to your neighbor’s wireless router and use his internet connection without your neighbor’s permission?
Analyze this dilemma from the perspective of at least two of the different ethical systems discussed in your textbook. Go through each of the steps in justifying an ethical choice:
Understand the Situation (review facts)
Know multiple ethical theories
Make list of ethical principles involved
Decide on weights of each principle (subjective evaluation)
Make choice
How would your answer change if there was no threat of damage to millions of Americans, but your boss insisted on an answer within the hour?