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Three Ethical Case Studies

Three Ethical Case Studies. B.F. Goodrich, Ford Pinto, Space Shuttle Challenger. Circumstances – B.F. Goodrich. B.F. Goodrich won USAF contract to make brakes for a new truck B.F. Goodrich couldn’t live up to promised performance claims in testing

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Three Ethical Case Studies

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  1. Three Ethical Case Studies B.F. Goodrich, Ford Pinto, Space Shuttle Challenger

  2. Circumstances – B.F. Goodrich B.F. Goodrich won USAF contract to make brakes for a new truck B.F. Goodrich couldn’t live up to promised performance claims in testing Instead, Goodrich submitted falsified data to Air Force Nobody knew except that an employee blew the whistle

  3. Ethical Principles Do the wrongs or perceived wrongs of a company justify whistleblowing? Was Kurtis justified in going public with the falsified tests? Loyalty to company vs personal moral compass

  4. Avoiding Disaster • Supervise testers’ methodology on contracts • Do not write falsified reports, even at risk of losing employment • Kurtis wrote a report he knew to be false

  5. Exploding Ford Pinto’s • Pinto’s were known to explode when involved in rear-end collisions due to defective fuel system design • Caused 4 deaths in 2 separate accidents and 1 burn victim

  6. Ethical Issues Corporate vs Social Responsibility Responsibility for failed innovation Problems with design implementation Liability and Negligence

  7. Risk-Benefit Analysis • Upgrading the system would cost Ford $11 per Pinto • Ford assessed that the upgrade would result in 180 less burn deaths, 180 less serious burn injuries, and 2100 less burned vehicles • Ford then assigned a ‘cost’ to each death, burn victim, and burned vehicle to come up with a ‘societal cost’ • $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, and $700 per vehicle

  8. Risk-Benefit Analysis Ford then decided the $11/car cost of upgrading the fuel system was larger than the ‘societal cost’ of continued injuries and deaths Essentially decided it was acceptable for 180 people to die and 180 people to burn if the cost to them was $11/car Should risk-benefit analysis be done in instances where lives are at stake?

  9. Avoiding Exploding Pinto’s • Ford could have curtailed the number of Pinto’s susceptible to catching on fire by issuing a recall on all existing Pinto’s and changing the design of future vehicles at a cost of $11/car • Small price to pay to insure the safety of the public

  10. Challenger Disaster January 28, 1986 seven astronauts were killed when the space shuttle they were piloting, the Challenger, exploded Rocket booster O-rings failed to seal properly, allowing hot combustion gases to leak from the booster and burn through the external fuel tank

  11. Solid Rocket Booster and O-rings • SRB’s are key elements in the operation of the shuttle. Without them the shuttle cannot produce enough thrust to overcome earth’s gravitational pull. • Each SRB joint is sealed by two O-rings. • The purpose of the O-rings is to preven hot combustion gas from escaping from the inside of the motor.

  12. Why O-ring failed Faulty design of the solid rocket boosters Insufficient low-temperature testing of the O-ring material and the joints the O-ring sealed Lack proper communication between different levels of NASA management

  13. Initial Complaint NASA wanted to check with all contractors to determine if there would be an issue with launching in cold weather. Alan McDonald, director of Solid Rocket Motor Project at Morton-Thiokol, knew there were cold weather problems with the solid rocket motors. He then contacted two engineers working on the project. But they said that management was not supporting the redesign task force.

  14. The night before the launch Thiokol’s engineers gave an hour-long presentation, presenting an argument that the cold weather would exaggerate the problems of the joint rotation and delaying O-ring seating. But NASA management still approved the boosters for launch, stating the cold weather was a concern, but found no original data was inconclusive.

  15. Ethical Principles What professional responsibility were possibly neglected? Should NASA have done anything differently in their launch decision procedure?

  16. How this could have been avoided Delaying the flight, and wait until a more suitable weather Delay the flight, and redesign the O-rings

  17. Our Ethical Issues Primary ethical concern: Data security and privacy Public transparency: collecting and storing data in an ethical, responsible, and non-misleading way Consent is key

  18. Avoiding Disasters Unplug high-voltage devices when not working on them Disallow use of prototype by untrained persons before finished product can be engineered for safety Not many disasters at this point

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