Ethical Case Study

Question 1:

Utilitarianism

The consequentialist in this situation might differ between harm to and benefits for a range of stakeholders, which could include Pauline and her family, Tony and his daughter, the employees, the Brisbane West News and consumers.

According to Utilitarianism, if Bill is going to tell the true that Tony Thin has fraud, it could harm many stakeholders. To begin with, Pauline Packer and even her family could face negative consequences. For example, Pauline would lose her job as well as loss Pauline’s house, and the employees might also become unemployment. In addition, Tony Thin might lose his job and be sued for copyright fraud. Tony’s daughter also might receive the negative situation is died because Tony could not earn money anymore to treat his sick child. However, there is one quite big benefit for consumers. The consumers could not be sick if using that diet for a long time because one of these ingredients has the potential to cause long-term physical damage.

On the other hand, there are many potential benefits of that do not tell the true. Firstly, Pauline could keep the career and not lose her house. Secondly, the staffs might continue to work because Tony Thin still keep his advertising contract with the Brisbane West News. Moreover, Tony’s daughter could be going to receive the expensive medical treatment since Tony continues to make money. Although there are many advantages for stakeholders, customers could harm if they use it for the long-term.

To conclude, if Diana was to resolve the ethical dilemma by using the utilitarianism theory he would not release that information about new diet product on the newspapers. A lot of stakeholders could benefit from releasing the information. Therefore, this action would be considered ethical.

Kantian ethics

Considering the copyright violation and journalist personality, as a journalist looking for the truth, would we release the information about Tony’s product if we had found it?

Naturally, we should not pretend to or truly ignore the obvious information. In addition, from a rational perspective, if ignoring the true information is unfair for someone, then it is unfair for all. According to Kant (Low, 2013), we may get a contradiction in conception if we cannot use the principle of universal acceptability and respect. In addition, when we do not release the information about Tony’s product, we lose the honesty and trust in community. I also would lose all respect and journalist personality if I do not tell to the customers. Consequently, Tony’s product clearly violated the copyright infringement, and the Brisbane West News need to release the truth. According to Kantian ethics, it would be considered ethical to disclose what Tony Thin is doing.

Virtue ethics

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