Markkula Center of Applied Ethics Responsibility

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Markkula Center of Applied Ethics Responsibility Occidental Engineering Case Study: Part 7 By Michael McFarland, S.J. When Wayne in the Occidental case loses his argument with Deborah, his manager, he still faces an ethical dilemma. If he is still convinced that there is something wrong with certifying the defective software, he must decide whether he should go ahead and do it as ordered, refuse to cooperate, or actively oppose any such action. If he does nothing, and an accident does occur because of the flawed software, is it his fault? This raises the issue of responsibility. In making an ethical judgement, it is not enough to decide what is right to do or what should have been done in a certain case. It is also necessary to decide to what extent one is or was responsible for doing what is right. It is certainly wrong for the driver of a car to crash into another car parked by the side of the road; but if the driver had lost control of his car because he suffered a heart attack or if he didn't see the parked car, he cannot be blamed for the accident, unless he could have avoided the circumstances that led to it. In the case of an individual act, assessing responsibility is relatively straightforward. To be held responsible, the agent must have knowledge of the act and its consequences and must have the freedom to choose or not choose the act. The driver who has a heart attack and loses control of his car is not in a position to choose whether or not to hit the parked car. The driver who comes around a corner driving at a safe speed in what he has every reason to believe is a clear travel lane and unexpectedly plows into a car that has been left in the road did not know and could not be expected to know that his actions would lead to a crash. In neither case would the driver be ethically responsible for the crash. In the first case he lacked the freedom, in

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