My Opinion About the Case of the Sole Remaining Supplier
My company supplies the pacemakers with transistors that they use to build heart pacemakers. The pacemaker technology is in its infancy and the maker is having different type of problems which resulted in many incidents. The incidents were caused by doctors that don’t know how to install the pacemaker because they lack the appropriate training. Also, the Quality assurance phase is very weak at the production level because the engineers are not testing the hardware rigorously.
As a result, my company feels that we will be sued because we are a supplier of the transistors used on the pacemakers. During our board meeting, the members have different opinions about this issue. Some members want us to stop supplying the pacemakers because they believe that it a bad deal that will eventually drive us to bankruptcy. They think that we are not making enough money selling the transistors to the pacemakers to take the risk to be sued by the victims. Also, they believe that the only obligation is to our shareholders, it is not our problem to think about the kids that died or the doctors that don’t know how install the pacemakers. We are only a transistor supplier; we didn’t invent this product to be liable for its problems. On the other hand, we have another group including myself that believe we have a duty to the people that need the pacemakers, People who have abnormal heart rhythm and arrhythmias. We shouldn’t get out of this business but instead confront the problem and find an effective solution for the issue. Especially, we are the only sole remaining suppliers that provide the pacemakers with transistors.
This is one of the most difficult decisions that we have to make during this board meeting. We have an ethical conflict: A group that takes their duty to society very seriously because they understand that the product we sell is a very important component of the pacemaker. As a result, we play an important role in saving people’s lives. We don’t want to cause the
As a result, my company feels that we will be sued because we are a supplier of the transistors used on the pacemakers. During our board meeting, the members have different opinions about this issue. Some members want us to stop supplying the pacemakers because they believe that it a bad deal that will eventually drive us to bankruptcy. They think that we are not making enough money selling the transistors to the pacemakers to take the risk to be sued by the victims. Also, they believe that the only obligation is to our shareholders, it is not our problem to think about the kids that died or the doctors that don’t know how install the pacemakers. We are only a transistor supplier; we didn’t invent this product to be liable for its problems. On the other hand, we have another group including myself that believe we have a duty to the people that need the pacemakers, People who have abnormal heart rhythm and arrhythmias. We shouldn’t get out of this business but instead confront the problem and find an effective solution for the issue. Especially, we are the only sole remaining suppliers that provide the pacemakers with transistors.
This is one of the most difficult decisions that we have to make during this board meeting. We have an ethical conflict: A group that takes their duty to society very seriously because they understand that the product we sell is a very important component of the pacemaker. As a result, we play an important role in saving people’s lives. We don’t want to cause the