Massey Coal
Massey Coal Case A person is morally responsible for an injury or a wrong if: 1. the person caused or helped caused it, or failed to prevent it when he or she could have and should have 2. the person did so knowing what he or she was doing 3. the person did so of his or her own free will
Question 1
Massey Energy Company should be held morally responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration issued “too much” citations for the violations in the mines Massey Energy Company owned. The company always challenged several of the citations and corrected enough of the significant and substantial violations to allow its total violations to fall below the level needed to force its closure. This means in terms of safety, the company only make significant safety change in order for their mines not to be totally closed but not make a major safety changes in order to follow all the guidelines of MSHA and eliminate all possible endangerment in the mines. Massey should be held morally responsible because of the lack of effort the company put in to improve the safety quality in their mines.
Question 2
Don Blankenship should be held morally responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners. Don wrote a memo stating that managers should concentrate on producing coal and not waste time responding to requests to fix things. It was not clear what had ignited the explosion of April 5 but it was almost certain that is was caused by accumulations of methane and coal dust. If Don had enforced the managers to focused more on the safety of the mines and the miners so that they are up to MSHA safety standards rather than only to concentrate on producing coal, the April 5 incident could well be prevented. Don Blankenship lack of care for the miners and prioritizing profit over safety are enough reasons for him to be held morally responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners.
Question 3
MSHA should somehow be held morally
Question 1
Massey Energy Company should be held morally responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration issued “too much” citations for the violations in the mines Massey Energy Company owned. The company always challenged several of the citations and corrected enough of the significant and substantial violations to allow its total violations to fall below the level needed to force its closure. This means in terms of safety, the company only make significant safety change in order for their mines not to be totally closed but not make a major safety changes in order to follow all the guidelines of MSHA and eliminate all possible endangerment in the mines. Massey should be held morally responsible because of the lack of effort the company put in to improve the safety quality in their mines.
Question 2
Don Blankenship should be held morally responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners. Don wrote a memo stating that managers should concentrate on producing coal and not waste time responding to requests to fix things. It was not clear what had ignited the explosion of April 5 but it was almost certain that is was caused by accumulations of methane and coal dust. If Don had enforced the managers to focused more on the safety of the mines and the miners so that they are up to MSHA safety standards rather than only to concentrate on producing coal, the April 5 incident could well be prevented. Don Blankenship lack of care for the miners and prioritizing profit over safety are enough reasons for him to be held morally responsible for the deaths of the 29 miners.
Question 3
MSHA should somehow be held morally