Ethical Issues and Traditional Solutions - Case Study Example

Ethical Issues and Traditional Solutions List of Ethical Issues The word “Ethics” can be described in different methods considering different cultures and values to which people adhere to. The term Ethics does not have any perfect definition, as an act could be ethical in the eyes of one person and can be subject to argument from the eyes of others. Logically Ethics can be explained as the way of doing things right. The word right here has much value, as righteousness can be different from the eyes of different people, as the saying goes “one man’s rebel is another’s freedom fighter”. In relation to the case numerous ethical issues can be high- lightened. For this purpose the article of Bynum and Schubert 1997 “how to do computer ethics” is of much consideration: Bynum and Schubert in 1997 in their article suggested a list comprising of seven points relating to computer ethics. These have been used in highlighting ethical issues in the case of Jasper. International Treaties and Agreements – this is the broadest category which include international laws, government treaties and international business legislation. All of these in some context cover numerous laws relating to computer usage. In case Jasper’s software house these would have come into play. The Software house as suggested by the case is large and therefore reputed, working on their biggest development which might change the Bio-medical technology altogether. A lot of investment of time and money has been put in, and therefore the company would face huge amount of pressure from international laws to be accurately correct as the health industry cannot afford any negligence. Further expectations of shareholder’s and directors to get a handsome return on their investment is also of concern to Project manager which might provoke him to be negligent and push things fast to meet shareholder expectation. Laws of Nation, state, province – local governments on their own establish local laws so govern ethical behavior amongst people. Like international agreements these local laws are of significant importance as no-compliances can lead to severe punishments and incase of Jasper’s software house may lead to revoking of license. These laws acts as deterrent for individuals to act un-ethically. The case does suggest that after an un-repairable damage was done some sort of action was taken in terms of court action advocating that some amount of Law involvement is present. But if strict policies were present it would have restrained the project manager to be more cautious. Regulations – many regulations are imposed by different agencies that exist at the governmental level to protect their citizen’s best interests. In the case suggested we find no clue suggesting the presence of such regulatory bodies. But under normal circumstances the Health Ministry of the Country and the software community such as the British Computer Society should have intervened first in the process of testing and clearing the software before it was sent for live tests. Standards of good practice – the corporate sector most of the time come to a consensus about best practices being followed unanimously across the industry. A very good example would the Combined Code of Corporate Governance. The code has laid down best practices that should be followed in running the operations of the company. the software company should explain their actions of negligence, which resulted in the loss of innocent life signifying that the company acted un-ethically by introducing the software for live testing when failed dummy tests indicating that the software should have been sent for further improvements. Professional codes of ethics – different codes of ethics are laid down by governing bodies to which the company relates to. In the case of software house BCS, ACM and the IMIS should have taken stringent measures in dealing with the Software house. The ignorance of the company explains that it did not bother to act according to the professional codes obligatory to their industry. Corporate policies – Bynum and Schubert suggest that sometimes there are possibilities of corporate policies being drafted by the corporations themselves to restrain their employees from working un-ethically. It seems that either the concerned software house did not have any policies in place or there is a culture to ignore them. Community and personal values – apart from formal rules and regulations as mentioned above an ethical decision maker lives in a community which has defined its known rights and wrongs. The decision maker need not analyze his situation based on difficult philosophies but limit his judgments based on simply what is right and wrong in their society. In relation to the case study it can be emphasized that simply relying on the values of the community the company shouldn’t have gone through with the testing of their software. Ethical Issues, traditional Solutions that fit case The idea of Bynum’s Ethical decision making revolves around an individual’s “Pattern Recognition Skills”. He suggests that a person needs not any sort of complex formulae or philosophies to act ethically, but it’s his ability to judge by Pattern recognition skills that he possesses. After detailed description obtained from the case one should try to “See” that are the current policies in line to guide the individuals conduct. If yes then decision making becomes easy, to select a traditional solution. The person requires no formulas to reach a conclusion but proposes a solution because he feels it’s the right decision. In the case of Jasper and his software house, one should keep the ethical point of view of equality, Justice and Respect into consideration. Equality portrays that all human beings are equal. They feel pain and sorrow and experience pleasure and joy. The project manager of Jasper’s software company should have considered that their actions might cause fatalities if the fear put forward by Jasper materializes. Which in fact did, and an innocent life had to pay the price of the project managers hasten. Justice needs be done and therefore an out of court settlement doesn’t feel right. Treating people equally is an important component of justice. Respect for human life is an important ethical issue. If there be no respect between individual it can lead to hate, rage violence and wars. By the act of Jasper’s company it seems that they had no love or respect for human life. The decision to go ahead with the testing of the software ultimately resulted in the death of an individual which could have been avoided if the decision taken would have constituted any love for human kind. In the given scenario a traditional solution to the problem would be to enquire the existence of policies and regulation. If there were polices in place to protect people from such acts then their definitely would be penalties associated with such negligence. A traditional solution would be to select the appropriate penalty as required by regulation and impose it on the software company. The penalty should go to an extent of cancelling their license. It seems just to penalize the software company as what they did was simply un-ethical and no one needs a complex prescription to see it. Therefore a traditional solution to do in this case what seems to be right rather than exercise difficult judgments and allow the firm to make such a blunder again. Ethical Conclusions Keeping in mid the analysis discussed above, certain overall conclusions can be drawn: One of the questions “what are the ethical issues”? Need be answered. Once the ethical issues are identified then solutions can be drawn. Did anyone do anything un-ethical? Another question if answered can solve the mystery of ethical decision making. Even if someone has done something wrong then the question arises as to why we think that the act is ethically wrong? One should prove his point of view as to why an act is deemed unethical. If there be future actions associated with the decision what they may be? And what would ethical consideration be to justify future action. Similarly if there be competing values and consideration, how would you rank them? These are general questions that one needs to ask in drafting conclusions as to what decision to make. Simply the above would apply in any ethical dilemma. If these questions are answered appropriately, an informed decision would be made in this regard. Drawing relevant ethical conclusions about the case Let’s apply the above questions in our scenario. The scenario suggests there be many ethical issues involved. The fact that the software had “goblin” and the company knew about the issue, but ignored the implication it might cause. Jasper’s concern was also ignored even though he was the team leader in developing the software. The facts that this negligence caused a fatality, all are ethical concerns that need consideration. The question that did anyone do anything un-ethical is simple in the context of the scenario. As a duty to exercise extreme care existed on part of the software house was neglected and it caused death of an individual. The duty of care existed and the firm was negligent is the answer for the question why do I think that the act was un-ethical. There should have been future action such as legislations imposed, regulators imposing severe penalties and the disassociating links with the firm by the Computing societies. The fact that there was an out of court settlement and no further action is of much concern as it implies that there is no ethical value or concern for loss of human life by the stakeholders involved. Question about competing vales and ranking them becomes really difficult in most circumstances. Different values might be important to different individuals, therefore diverse decisions will be observed when taken by dissimilar individuals. Drawing lessons for the future Future lessons are of most important in ethical dilemmas. If an individual acted un-ethically in one situation there is a possibility that he would act again in a similar manner. There should be measures in place to stop a person from acting un-ethically and to prevent others following in his footsteps. If there are policy vacuums, they need be filled immediately. Regulators and legislators should act in all good faith to a greater cause. Human life is much precious and should not be left at the mercy of some capitalists. The new policies drafted should consider such negligence as happened in the given case. Strong penalties should be in place which may act as a deterrent and such waste of life should be avoided at all possible costs. Read More