Case Studies - I & Doubt

Clearing Session
Dr Awdhesh Singh, IRS (Retd.)
Director, Awdhesh Academy,
Former Commissioner, Customs & Indirect Taxes (Central Excise &GST)
Application of Applied Ethics
Death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland
• Savita presented at Galway University Hospital with severe back pain on October
21st, 2012, and was found to be miscarrying her 17-week pregnancy.
• After a day in “agony” and distress, she asked for a termination but was refused
because there was a foetal heartbeat.
• On the third day she spontaneously delivered a female foetus and went into a
coma. Her condition gradually deteriorated and finally she died on October 28th,
2012.
• Her death served as a rallying cry for efforts to repeal the Eighth Amendment of
the Constitution of Ireland, which prohibited abortion in most instances.
• The amendment was later repealed empowering Parliament to legislate for
abortion.
• Is it morally right to go for abortion?
Medical Ethics: Issue of Abortion
• Whether it can be morally right to terminate a pregnancy before
normal childbirth?
• Some people think that abortion is always wrong.
• Some think that abortion is right when the mother's life is at risk.
• Others think that there is a range of circumstances in which abortion
is morally acceptable.
Argument : All abortions are wrong
• All actions that kill a human being are morally wrong.
• All abortions are actions that kill a human being.
• All abortions are morally wrong.
Flaw in the argument
• In many situations, killing of people is acceptable and even moral (like
in the case of terrorists, rapist drug-traffickers)
• Abortion may sometime save life of mother.
Logical conclusion: Most Abortions are wrong
• All actions that kill an innocent person without resulting in saving the
life of another person or something of similar moral importance are
morally wrong.
• Most abortions are actions that kill an innocent person without
resulting in saving the life of another person or something of similar
moral importance.
• Most abortions are morally wrong.
Reasons of abortion
• Right of the mother to bear child and give birth
• Dowry to the girl child
• Risk of life to mother
• Rape case
• Child deformity
Conclusions
• Female infanticide is not permissible due to social evil like dowry
• Mothers can’t have absolute right on her children’s life
• Abortion may be justified to save the life of mother, rape cases or
serious deformity of child
Case Study of Baby Doe
• In 1982, a couple from Bloomington, Indiana gave birth to a baby with
severe mental and physical disabilities.
• Among other complications, the infant (known as Baby Doe)had its
stomach disconnected from its throat and was thus unable to receive
nourishment.
• Although this stomach deformity was correctable through surgery, the
couple did not want to raise a severely disabled child and therefore chose
to deny surgery, food, and water for the infant. Local courts supported the
parents' decision.
• Six days later Baby Doe died.
• Should corrective surgery have been performed for Baby Doe?
Arguments in favor of corrective surgery
• The infant's right to life
• Principle of paternalism which stipulates that we should pursue the
best interests of others when they are incapable of doing so
themselves.
Arguments against corrective surgery
• If Baby Doe survived, its quality of life would have been poor and in
any case it probably would have died at an early age.
• Baby Doe's survival would have been a significant emotional and
financial burden for the parents.
Conclusions
• Courts concluded that the arguments against surgery were stronger
than the arguments for surgery.
1. Surgery appeared NOT to be in the best interests of the infant, given the
poor quality of life it would endure.
2. Baby Doe's right to life was not clear given the severity of the infant's
mental impairment.
Environmental ethics
• ‘Environmental ethics’ is the discipline in philosophy that studies the
moral relationship of human beings to the environment and its
nonhuman contents.’
• All living beings, including plants and animals, are part of
environment
• All of them have right to co-exist with human beings.
Topics under environmental ethics
• Global warming,
• Pollution and development
• Sustainable development
• Economic development and social justice.
• International relations and global governance.
Issues under environmental ethics
1. Consumption of natural resources
2. Destruction of forests and rehabilitation
3. Environmental pollution
4. Harm to animals
1. Consumption of natural resources
• Unscrupulous depletion of our natural resources is detrimental to our
well-being.
• Excessive use of our available resources is to risk the life of our future
generations.
• “We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it
from our children.” - Native American Proverb
2. Destruction of forests and rehabilitation
• Large scale industrial activities lead to destruction of forests and other
natural resources.
• Mining processes disrupt the ecological balance of nature and harm the
plant and animal life in those regions.
• Land used for agriculture is unable to compensate the loss of trees and
animal life.
• Construction of dam, roads or factories displace a large number of local
inhabitants.
• Displaced people find it difficult to get an alternative place and means of
livelihood.
• Proper rehabilitation policy must be made for rehabilitation
Components of good Rehabilitation policy
• Fair compensation for local’s land and property.
• Site plots or built houses at nearby places commensurate with their
land mass.
• Means to develop their own traditional art and culture.
• Jobs for at least one adult member of each family
• Resettlement in the neighbourhood or in a similar environment.
• Education and skill development for the local people
• Awareness about the benefits of the projects.
3. Environmental pollution
• Population is exceeding the carrying capacity of our planet
• Large-scale constructions of roads and buildings damage the
environment.
• Increasing use of automobiles, burning of crops and use of coal to
generate electricity mainly responsible for polluted environment.
• Environmental pollution affects the health of the people and leads to
many types of respiratory diseases and causing many deaths every
year.
Strategies for Sustainable development
• Develop appropriate waste management policy
• Create social awareness for
• cleaning the garbage
• taking care of the environment
• Use part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan tax for funding the
environmental NGOs, and enable them to act as citizens’
representatives and watchdogs.
• Prescribe strict emission norms for vehicles and other polluting
industries.
• Stricter penalties for the violation of environmental norms.
Strategies (Contd.)
• Simplify the process of complaints and reward to informer.
• Create detailed environmental databases and make them accessible
to all citizens.
• The pollution control boards should be adequately funded, staffed
and empowered.
• Indian universities must include environmental studies in all courses
to sensitise the future citizens of India
• Higher rates of GST on the vehicles that increase pollution.
4. Harm to animals
• When human inhabitation grows, the animals lose their homes.
• Animals enter human settlements posing a threat to the people
• Animals are also killed to serve as a food source for humans.
• Animal studies cause harm to animals and sometimes even leads
them to their deaths.
• This has led to the extinction of many animal species.
• We must try to minimize harm to animals
Question and Case Studies
Question
• It is often said that 'politics' and 'ethics' do not go together. What is
your opinion in this regard? Justify your answer with illustrations.
Answer
• Politics means serving the society by acquiring power with the help of
the people.
• Most people like to see honest people governing their country.
• Ethics is also about serving the society by following ethical conduct in
life.
• Hence, politics and ethics must ideally go hand in hand.
• When people of any country lack ethical values themselves, they
often elect the corrupt and unethical people to power.
• This often leads to corruption in politics.
Contd.
• It is not right to say that ‘politics’ and ‘ethics’ do not go together all
the time.
• If people in a society are moral, the politicians of that country shall
also be ethical.
• Good leaders transform the society and make it moral due to their
conduct and behaviour.
• Great politicians like Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln
transformed the society due to their selfless service and courage.
Ethics and Legality
• “A mere compliance with law is not enough, the public servant also
have to have a well developed sensibility to ethical issues for effective
discharge of duties” Do you agree? Explain with the help of two
examples where
• an act is ethically right, but not legally and
• an act is legally right, but not ethically.
Sensibility to ethical issues
• Public servants should not act mechanically while implementing the
laws or performing their duties as a public servant.
• They must also take into account the consequence of their action
while discharging their duties.
• They must use their discretionary powers to work for the public good
and create better society.
• We agree with statement.
An act is ethically right, but not legally
• A man has given his house on rent.
• The tenant refuses to vacate the flat after the expiry of the lease
agreement.
• The man request his IPS friend to get the house vacated.
• The IPS friend some local police officers to his house who threaten
and thrash the tenant.
• As a result the house is vacated by tenant. Such an action is ethically
right, but legally wrong.
An act is legally right, but not ethically
• A police officer catches a poor and hungry man stealing bread and
arrests him for theft.
• He is legally right as all thefts are punishable in law.
• However, such an action may not be ethically right since the act was
done under desperation and amount is quite small.
• The punishment is quite disproportionate to the crime.
Question
• Differentiate between the following.
• Law and ethics
• Ethical management and management of ethics
• Discrimination and preferential treatment
• Personal ethics and professional ethics
Law and Ethics
• Both law and ethics tell us what is right and what is wrong.
• Laws are passed by the Parliament or as a decree by a ruler. Laws
prescribe punishment for non-compliance, which is enforced by the
state.
• Ethics is based on the culture, traditions, religion and philosophy in
society. They guide us to follow the right path according to the
prevalent norms. You are appreciated for being ethical and criticized
for being unethical.
Ethical management and management of ethics

• Ethical management refers to corporate management that not only

fulfils economic goals and legal responsibilities, but also meets the
ethical expectations imposed by social and legal norms in conducting
business.
• Management of ethics is a set of principles and rules made by the
upper management that define the right and wrong in an
organisation.
Discrimination and preferential treatment
• Discrimination means being biased against a person or a group or a
social class, based on its race, caste, religion, gender, etc.
• Preferential treatment is given when a person is selected based on
race, caste, religion and offered a position in preference to others.
Personal ethics and professional ethics
• Personal ethics are applicable in the personal life of a person.
• Professional ethics are related to following a code of conduct in one’s
profession.
• Example:
• The professional ethics of a lawyer forbears him from disclosing his
communication with his client
• Personal ethics forbears a person from disclosing information given by a
friend on the condition of anonymity
Cutting of Trees for Metro
Project
Case
• Greenway colony is popularly known as the Green Lung of a metropolitan city of
India. This region has more than one lakh trees in a National Park. There is metro
project under way in this city which shall be a boon for the daily travelers of the
city.
• However, in order to provide a shed for the car parking, almost 5,000 trees are
required to be cut.
• The state government is has already agreed to provide a part of this ecologically
sensitive zone for a Metro car shed.
• However, the environmentalists and citizens’ groups are fighting against the move
of cutting down the trees as it is home to several species of birds, insects and
leopards.
• They are organizing statewide demonstrations to put pressure on the state
government for not cutting the trees. They have also approached the High Court
of the State to stop the cutting of trees.
Contd.
• You are appointed as the Managing Director of the city’s Metro
Project and government is pressing hard to get the trees cut as soon
as possible.
• What are the different options available to you in this case?
• Provide the merit and demerit of each option.
• Which option shall you prefer and why?
Discussion
• Stakeholders: You (MD), environmental group, state and central
government and the common public of the state.
• This is a case of Applied Ethics which deals with the dilemma of
environment and development.
• Whenever a projects like railways, roadways or industries are undertaken
by the government for the development of the nation, some ecological
damage takes place as a result.
• When the trees are cut, the green cover of the city is reduced and
environmental pollution is increased.
• Metro project is necessary to provide faster transportation to the local
population and also reduce pollution by cutting down the number of
vehicles on the road.
1. Cut down the trees as soon as possible and
implement the plan
• Merit
• Metro project is quickly completed benefiting a large number of commuters
• Demerit
• Ecology is damaged forever,
• Government loses respect before environmentalists and groups protesting
the case
2. Wait for the order of the High Court
• Merit
• HC would weigh the various aspects of the cutting down of trees and decide
judiciously.
• It will provide legitimacy and justification to state government.
• Demerit
• Litigations may delay the project for months and even for years.
• If the judgement goes against the metro, the project might have to be
shelved.
3. Realign the metro project to minimize the
damage to the trees.
• Merit
• Minimum trees have to be cut.
• May satisfy the environmentalists.
• Demerit
• The cost of the project would go up.
• Project may be delayed.
Right Option
• In this case, Option 3 is the best.
• You may convince the government to negotiate with the
environmentalists and find a middle path that can minimize the
damage to the forest area.
• In case negotiations fail, the project must be completed as soon as
possible after the High Court passes its verdict.
Ethicality of Incentivized Review
Case
• Amit has recently started a North Indian restaurant in Delhi. He supplies
most of his food items through Zomato, which is an Indian restaurant
aggregator and food delivery company. Zomato provides information,
menus and user-reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options
from partner restaurants in select cities. However, he was noticing that the
reviews have not been very positive. The reviews of customers play very
important role for building the reputation of a company and attract new
customers.
• In order to improve the review of his business, he decided to offer 10% on
the spot discount to the customers who dine in the restaurant. In order to
publicize this scheme, he also put up a notice board outside the restaurant
which stated, “Come one, Come All! Avail flat 10% discount just by writing
reviews on our Zomato page.”
Contd.
• In order to get this discount, the customers have to write their review
inside the restaurant, show it to the cashier, who will then give
discount on the bill. After adopting this new practice, the average
review of the restaurant improved drastically and his business
increased exponentially.
• Do you think that the practice of giving discount for review is ethically
correct?
• If you are a friend of Amit, what would you suggest him to improve
the review and rating for his business?
• What type of actions must be taken by Zomato to ensure honest
reviews from the customers?
Ethicality of Incentivized Reviews
• Stakeholders: Amit, Zomato, Customers
• The online review and rating of a product plays extremely important
role in the sale of a product.
• Most people read online reviews before they make a purchase.
• Incentivized reviews are unethical since such reviews don’t bring out
an accurate sentiment from the reviewer.
• The practice of giving discount for review is ethically wrong and
against the principle of honesty and integrity.
• It may also be against the law to get review by granting financial
incentives.
Suggestions for getting positive reviews
• Improve the quality of food and service
• Contact customers by phone, email or SMS after they leave and thank
them for their patronage before asking for their review.
• Request the customers to give the review online as soon as possible,
but without offering any discount.
• Respond to the positive and negative reviews
• Customers are more likely to visit the restaurant if the business
respond to negative review.
Suggestions to company
• Customer reviews are a vital piece of social proof for potential customers.
• The company must ensure the integrity of the customers review to
maintain its credibility
• Add a checkbox in the review column where they can allow the customers
to submit their reviews after they have agreed that they have not been
given any incentive for giving the review.
• In case, an incentive is given, they may be prompted to report and provide
a proof (like photo of the discount offer).
• Company must delisted such sellers from their platform and blacklisted
them.
• They may also give publicity of such sellers which will deter the other seller
to do the same in future.