MOD 2 ETH501 - Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MOD 2 ETH501 - Business Ethics - Essay Example The heart pacemakers were made because several people were in need of the equipment. The pacemakers helped people in maintaining proper heart beat rate to avoid deaths (Shanks, 1996). Although some people died out of incompetency of certain doctors while installing the gadgets, the risks and negative consequences were minimized. The pacemaker company maximized on the good it offered to its client, helping avoid deaths because of inability of the heart to beat. The deaths that occurred because of the lack of pacemakers were more than deaths due to the challenges of installing the pacemakers. This exemplified the need to maximize the greater good of pacemaker business while minimizing on the dangers faced. Saving human life is better than the financial gains that the transistor manufacturing company is against (Shanks, 1996). Utilitarian ethics is demonstrated by the transistor manufacturing board when they accepted to supply the heart pacemakers with the transistors they needed becaus e of a responsibility and duty to protect the rights of individuals in need of the pacemakers. Further, the board ensured that they minimized the negative implications of the business so that they balanced their trust responsibility to the company (Melvin, 2005). They did the right thing with maximum good in supplying the transistors to save lives and developed appropriate technical as well as testing standards to hold the pacemaker company against in an effort to minimize the harm. They reduced harm in the business and maximized on the utility while accomplishing the common good and protecting rights of people (Shanks, n.d.). What Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism, would have said about the Case Bentham would have argued that the board agreeing to supply the company making pacemakers was based on utilitarian business ethics because it satisfied human nature by avoiding pain that patients would undergo without pacemakers (Jones, 2005). In addition, he would have asserted that the appropriate action on the case would be for the transistor company to supply the other company as it was the right action based on the principle of utility. The good effects in the case involved supplying the transistors with a commitment to improving the testing and technical standards to balance the good and bad effects. This was a much better alternative than declining to supply the transistors to the pacemakers (Driver, 2009). Letting the pacemaker company not to run out of business by supplying the transistors was an instance of utilitarianism because it was a consideration of the good of all the involved parties without any partiality. How Bentham's suggestion that "We seek pleasure and the avoidance of pain..." might apply The board of the transistor making company demonstrated ‘seeking pleasure and avoiding pain’ when it initially declined that it would not supply transistors to pacemakers because it would face legal suits and challenges. The absence of appropriate standards by the pacemakers to measure their electronics would cause pain to the transistor company. The business deal would cause pain to the transistor company, and the board initially opts out of the deal. This would have not been proper for the welfare of the involved stakeholders (Shaw, 2011). In addition, all the other transistor making companies that pulled out of business with the pacemakers were avoiding pain in their business pursuit by trying to