Download Ethics and the Professions

Ethics and the Professions - Case Analysis
1. Name / e-mail:
Kimberley Dennis / [email protected]
2. Semester:
Spring 2004
3. Case #:
1
4. Reference:
BBC News
5. Summary:
Companies could face legal penalty for exposing their employees to pornographic spam from
company internet access.
6. Profession, Professional, or Public Servant for whom there is an ethical issue:
Corporate employers
7. Normative Ethical Question:
Do companies have a moral responsibility to protect employees from pornographic spam on
corporate internet servers?
8. Broader Ethical Issues:
Is pornography immoral?
Do people have a moral obligation to one another to provide for the emotional and physical
health others?
9. Answer:
Pornography is immoral.
People have a moral obligation to one another to provide for the emotional and physical health of
others.
10. Reasons Supporting Answer:
According to act utilitarianism, pornography would have to bring out more happiness than the
absence of pornography for it to be moral. The existence of such a wide spread debate and the
statistic which states that 63% of firms thought pornographic spam was offensive, would suggest
that many are offended by pornography. This in turn, suggests pornographic spam in the
corporate setting or otherwise does not provide the most happiness for all who are involved. In
this way, one might say that pornography is immoral.
In reference to the emotional and physical health of all, the consequentialist ethical theory would
say that an action is moral if it considers the effects of the action – and the effects are positive.
Pornography would be immoral if the creators or enablers (i.e. corporate officials) allowed it to
occur, and an understood/expected negative effect followed. Specifically, it seems that
employers (in light of the statistics and complaints) know that the effect of pornographic spam
on their employees is negative; therefore, employers would be behaving in an immoral way if
they did not protect employees from pornography.
11. Alternative Answer:
Pornography is moral.
People do not have a moral obligation to one another to provide for the emotional and physical
health of others.
12. Reasons Supporting Alternative:
According to act utilitarianism, pornography could be moral if it brought about the most
happiness. There are some circumstances in which people would be happy after viewing
pornography. The statistics on the amount of people visiting pornographic websites and buying
pornographic magazines might suggest that pornography does provide happiness for people;
therefore, pornography could be considered moral.
Rule utilitarianism says that even in times of unhappiness, it is necessary to obey “rules” that
ultimately maximize happiness. One might suggest that the freedom to read or look at what one
pleases provides for the most happiness in the end. The lack of freedom to do these things
(whether it be with pornography or otherwise), might hinder “universal happiness.” In this way,
it is plausible to say that there is no moral obligation to provide for the emotional and physical
health of others.
13. Which facts, if otherwise, would change the answer?:
It would be relevant to know about any laws protecting workers from mental “abuse” at work
and how far this law would provide protection. This would suggest that the moral obligation lies
in abiding to the law, and not to providing protection to employees.
Further statistics on the efficacy of workers exposed to pornography during the day might detail
how employers’ “happiness” (in reference to employee productivity) might be affected by
pornography.
14. Further Comments:
15. Indicate one: X _ I give permission for this to be posted and attributed to me.
_ I give permission for this to be posted, but anonymously.
_ Please do not post this.