September 5, 2015

Demand for bribe money

I was working as a U.S. management consultant in a south Asian country with a strong tribal tradition and a relationship-based culture. Decades of social unrest had created an environment where most people were focused on meeting their short-term needs. My team received a new assignment to advise a high-level government official and his support staff (administrators, secretaries and logistical departments). The official met with us and was generally positive about what we would accomplish together. Towards the end of the meeting, he began bringing up several requests, and asked me halfway through if I was “writing this down.”

The requests were:

  • 1,000 light bulbs for his office
  • A digital camera
  • An electric generator for his home
  • Viagra

He then explained that we could begin our work after he received these items.

Contributed by anonymous

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Posted by on September 5, 2015 in Ethics on the job and tagged .

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September 5, 2015

Medicaid vs privately-insured patients

In a for-profit healthcare environment, we are constantly in a balancing act between doing what’s right for our patients and what’s profitable for the company.  This becomes even more of an issue when we start differentiating patients based on insurance plans. Someone on Medicaid [funded by the U.S. government] brings about half as much revenue as a patient with private insurance.  Should we treat both patients the same?  More than half of our patients are on Medicaid.

Contributed by anonymous

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Posted by on September 5, 2015 in Ethics on the job, Medical ethics and tagged , , , , , .

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September 5, 2015

Manufacturing weapons

As an employee of a technology company, I help to build tools that accelerate the pace of engineering and science. Our clients include automobile, aerospace and defense industries.

My biggest ethical dilemma arises when we work with defense companies to build missiles, rocket launchers, warships etc. On one hand, I feel it will help protect innocent civilians from outside threats, but I also know these weapons will be used to kill other innocent people. We have witnessed world wars, the Vietnam war, or the Afghanistan war, and they have only led to nations/families being destroyed as a consequence. I believe no one wins these wars, but they only lead to destruction and distraught populations – and I hate that part of my job that is associated with war.

Contributed by anonymous

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Posted by on September 5, 2015 in Ethics on the job, Other dilemmas and tagged , , .

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September 5, 2015

Misuse of e-commerce site

Etsy is an e-commerce retail site where artisans can set up their own boutiques to sell craft goods for a profit. While it is free to set up your own boutique shop on Etsy, the seller must pay $0.20 for each listed item, and Etsy receives 3.5% of the profits for each product sold.

I have a friend who has had an Etsy shop running for some time. At one point she was in touch with the customer through the Etsy message boards and realized that the customer wanted to purchase a large quantity of an item. She quickly realized that it would be much more profitable to bypass Etsy and sell privately to the buyer. By doing so, she circumvented the seller agreement with Etsy and simply used the site as a means of advertising and depriving Etsy of any profit.

Contributed by anonymous

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Posted by on September 5, 2015 in Buying and selling, Ethics and technology/AI and tagged , .

1 Comment

August 14, 2015

Coworker is a drunk driver

I had a coworker with a drinking problem. The problem was so severe that he frequently arrived at work already drunk.  On one occasion, he actually got into a car accident in the parking lot. When we went outside to investigate, it was obvious to us that he would be charged with DUI [driving under the influence of alcohol, a serious offense] if we called the police.  However, he had enough problems already, without having to deal with a criminal record.  The accident victim was reluctant to call the police.  Should we?

Contributed by anonymous

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Posted by on August 14, 2015 in Ethics on the job, Other dilemmas and tagged , , .

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August 13, 2015

Withdrawing life support

My grandmother suffered an intracranial hemorrhage that left her severely brain damaged and unable to communicate.  With no living will or documentation regarding her medical treatment, we were left with the difficult task of deciding the course of her medical treatment. Breathing tubes, feeding tubes, and several other long-term medical decisions needed to be made without my grandmother being able to explain her wishes. It is a situation that roughly 30% of patients with life-threatening conditions find themselves in.

For months, my grandmother lived on a number of medical machines that kept her alive, lungs breathing and heart pumping. She made no improvement cognitively and remained fully dependent on mechanical ventilation.  With a heavy heart, my grandfather and his children reached the difficult conclusion that she would not wish to be maintained on machines indefinitely.  She was removed from life support and passed away shortly thereafter.  While I agree with the decision they made, not everyone sees it the same way.  Is ending a life willingly ever right?  Or is maintaining a human being indefinitely on life support just as unethical?

Contributed by anonymous

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Posted by on August 13, 2015 in Medical ethics and tagged , , .

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June 29, 2015

Refusing to cater same-sex wedding

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on 26 June 2015 that same-sex marriage is legal throughout the nation. The ruling attracted renewed attention to the dilemma facing officials and business owners who don’t wish to play a role in same-sex marriages. Actually, the issue had already been widely exposed in the media with an Oregon anti-discrimination case. Sweet Cakes Bakery refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013, on religious grounds. The couple brought suit under the state’s 2007 Equality Act, which exempts religious organizations but not businesses. An administrative law judge ruled in April 2015 that the bakery owners must pay $135,000 in damages to the couple. There are many issues here, but an obvious one is whether a bakery should refuse its services to same-sex weddings.

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Posted by on June 29, 2015 in Buying and selling and tagged , , , .

1 Comment

March 5, 2015

Tobacco-free campus

About 1000 universities in the U.S. follow the recent trend of having a tobacco-free campus. This means that no one is allowed to use any form of tobacco anywhere on university property, indoors or outdoors, no matter how remote the location. Is such a policy ethical?

This issue was raised by a recent proposal to ban tobacco use on the Carnegie Mellon University campus.

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Posted by on March 5, 2015 in Ethics at school, Medical ethics and tagged , , .

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February 22, 2015

Donation or personal service?

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, offers physicians from wealthy countries the opportunity to utilize their medical expertise in poor areas. To do so, however, many physicians must forgo large salary earnings–sums that would likely save more lives if they were donated rather than sacrificed….

The starting yearly salary for a physician employed by MSF is currently under $20,000. By contrast, the mean 2009 salary for a general practitioner in the U.S. is $168,550. Clearly, there are more efficient uses of many doctors’ time and skills than to join MSF, even (or especially) if their main motivation is to save lives and treat the sick. Indeed, many U.S. physicians could easily donate enough to more than cover the salary of another doctor employed by MSF and pay for his/her medical supplies.

A similar issue arises in other professions.

The dilemma was posed by Prof. Christopher Olivola, Carnegie Mellon University

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Posted by on February 22, 2015 in Ethics on the job, Medical ethics and tagged , , , .

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