In deciding whether it is ethical for you to buy amber from Myanmar, do you need to guard against the self-serving bias unduly affecting your decision? If decisions about businesses are totally governed by the need to create the most happiness possible, then companies like KDCP that don’t contribute much to social well-being will quickly become endangered. But few would consider it an acceptable course of action, let alone an ethical one. A policy issue? Explain. For example, say a hospital has four people whose lives depend upon receiving organ transplants: a heart, lungs, a kidney, and a liver. [47] Ingfei Chen, Exactly How Dangerous Is Football?, The New Yorker, Feb. 1, 2020. [23] Steven Senne, Student Athletes Still Reluctant to Report Concussions, Nationwide Children’s Study Finds, Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 24, 2019, at https://www.dispatch.com/news/20191124/student-athletes-still-reluctant-to-report-concussions-nationwide-childrens-study-finds. [77] Dave Bry, American Football is Too Dangerous, and It Should Be Abolished, The Guardian (UK), Jan. 4, 2016 (quoting CBS News quoting, in turn, Dr. John York). Utilitarianism, business ethics and the Ford Pinto case present a dilemma, as the theory appears to be one of moral strength and a good guideline for ethical business choice. Why or why not? Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes. Ethics, Population Health Policy, and Sports-Related TBI, in Sociolcultural Examinations of Sports Concussions (Matt Ventresca & Mary McDonald eds, 2020); Alan Schwarz et al., N.F.L.’s Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry, New York Times, March 24, 2016. Most companies have a formal or informal code of ethics, which is shaped by their corporate culture, values, and regional laws. Act utilitarianism often demonstrates the concept that “the end justifies the means”—or it's worth it. If a healthy person wanders into the hospital, his organs could be harvested to save four lives at the expense of his one life. High school athletes are reluctant to report concussions. [69] Julie Mack, What Parents Need to Know about Football, Concusions and Head Injuries, mlive.com, Nov. 24, 2019, at https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/11/what-parents-need-to-know-about-football-and-head-injuries.html (quoting neurologist David Kaufman). "Utility" is defined in various ways, … [18] Ernest L. Abel, Football Increases the Risk for Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Perceptual Motor Skills, 104(3): 1251-1254 (20007). [60] Ingfei Chen, Exactly How Dangerous Is Football?, The New Yorker, Feb. 1, 2020. See also Michael Cunningham, Player Safety Takes Back Seat as NCAA Rushes to Allow Campus Workouts, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 22, 2020. However, many such studies were funded or carried out by the NFL, owners of NFL franchises, universities that earn millions of dollars from football, and other interested parties. III. Are you aware of comparable situations around the world where individuals and corporations that wish to be moral buyers should be similarly wary, knowing that their purchase price might aid the seller’s bad acts? We all know that business class passengers pay a premium price to get all the luxuries of that class that the airline offers. An example of rule utilitarianism in business is tiered pricing for a product or service for different types of customers. A political issue? [59] At the end of the day, the jury still seems to be out on the question of whether you can go to a football game or watch one on television and still feel good about yourself for supporting a sport that seems to cause irreversible traumatic brain injuries. [83] Des Bieler, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy Says His Team Needs to Play for Benefit of State Economy,” Washington Post, April 7, 2020, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/04/07/oklahoma-states-mike-gundy-says-his-team-needs-play-benefit-state-economy/. Utilitarianism is one of the most important and influential moral theories of modern times. Utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. They can suffer concussions from milder collisions than would be required to concuss a collegiate or professional player. For example, the airline industry offers first class, … [89] Mariana Brussoni et al., Risky Play and Children’s Safety: Balancing Priorities for Optimal Child Development, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9:3134-3148 (2012). As told in the movies, a significant scientific breakthrough occurred in 2002 when an African-American neuropathologist in Pittsburgh named Bennet Omalu (played by Will Smith in the 2015 movie “Concussion”) performed an autopsy on Hall of Fame center Mike Webster. [58] Daniel Engber, Concussion Lies, Slate, Dec. 21, 2015, at https://slate.com/culture/2015/12/the-truth-about-will-smiths-concussion-and-bennet-omalu.html; Kevin Lomangino, Journalists Drop the Ball on Big Concussion/CTE Story, HEALTHNEWSREVIEW.ORG, Jan. 19, 2018, at https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2018/01/sports-desks-drop-the-ball-on-big-concussion-story/; [59] Matt Ventresca, The Curious Case of CTE: Mediating Materialities of Traumatic Brain Injury, Communication & Sport, 7(2): 135-156 (2019). … Utilitarianism is the most common kind of consequentialism, which is one of the three major branches of ethics. Quantitative utilitarianism, or Benthamite utilitarianism, is a branch of utilitarianism that was developed out of the work of Jeremy Bentham (1747-1832) – an English philosopher, economist, political scientist, legal scholar, and social reformer. [19] Rachel Grashow et al., Association of Concussion Symptoms with Testosterone levels and Erectile Dysfunction in Former Professional US-Style Football Players, JAMA Neurology, 2019: DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.2664. 30 videos - one minute each - relate recent scandals in the news and give ethical insights. The reality is that we still don’t know who is most likely to suffer a concussion, who will take longer to recover, how anatomic or genetic differences influence concussions, and who may be at risk of prolonged symptoms or developing cognitive problems later in life.”[34], Furthermore, many of the studies cited by those who would like to abolish tackle football have involved relatively small sample sizes. Youth football players average 240 head impacts per season. Utilitarianism is pervasive in contemporary business practice, management theory, and decision-making through cost-benefit analysis. In economics, utility is the pleasure or satisfaction that people derive fromconsuming a product or service. In a study of 14,000 NFL players, researchers found that even head impacts insufficient to cause concussions can mount up over the years, leading to CTE and premature death. [11] Justin Ehrlich et al., Mortality Risk Factors Among National Football League Players: An Analysis Using Player Career Data, F1000Research 2019, 8:2022. Bentham’s fundamental axiom states that, “It is the gr… [33] William Stewart et al., Primum Non Nocere: A Call for Balance When Reporting on CTE, Lancet Neurology, 18:231-232 (2019). Utilitarianism vs. Deontology vs. Virtue Ethics. Explain. The Three Generally Accepted Axioms of Utilitarianism State That, Utilitarianism's Relevance in a Political Economy, Everything You Need to Know About Macroeconomics. [61] Ingfei Chen, Exactly How Dangerous Is Football?, The New Yorker, Feb. 1, 2020. Why, then, do you think they oppose letting adults choose freely to play football? The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. It is also the most common approach to moral reasoning used in business because of the way in which it accounts for costs and benefits. This would arguably produce the greatest good for the greatest number. [62] Matt Ventresca, The Curious Case of CTE: Mediating Materialities of Traumatic Brain Injury, Communication & Sport, 7(2): 135-156 (2019). The notion of ethical business practices has led to the formation of theories including the utilitarian theory, rights theory, justice theory, caring theory, and virtues theory, which have since been integral in the understanding of business … Do these choices remind you of the COVID-19 pandemic when governments, in deciding whether to shut down society and later when to reopen it, had to weigh lives vs. livelihoods? African-Americans make up 12.6% of the American population but 68% of NFL rosters. 3352 (Dec. 2016). But utilitarianism has been attacked on many fronts, and by renowned philosophers. [56] Christie Aschwanden, Football’s Concussion Crisis Is Awash with Pseudoscience, Wired.com, Oct. 2, 2019 (quoting brain scientists Adnan Hirad). 1. Utilitarianism can be used in any business decision that seeks to maximize positive effects (especially morally, but also financially) and minimize negative ones. So, we just need to kind of put it in context.”. Daniel Goldberg, What Does the Precautionary Principle Demand of Us? A Defense of a utilitarian approach to business ethics, written for Business Ethics: A Philosophical Approach Edited by Werhane and Donaldson. [70] Nicholas Dixon, Boxing, Paternalism, and Legal Moralism, Social Theory and Practice, 27(2): 323-344 (2001). Utilitarian? A theory of ethical behavior, utilitarianism holds that an action is "right" to the extent that it benefits people or society, either by creating happiness, improving well-being, or reducing suffering. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. Bry believes that this will never happen. In the early 1900s, Ideal utilitarianism was first used to demonstrate the belief that there’s more to good than is denoted by pleasure. [32] Matt Ventresca & Mary G. McDonald, Forces of Impact: Critically Examining Sport’s “Concussion Crisis,” in Sociolcultural Examinations of Sports Concussions (Ventresca & McDonald, eds., 2019). However, because we cannot predict the future, it’s difficult to know with certainty whether the consequences of our actions will be good or bad. [7], If only one thing is clear about the current science surrounding sports-related concussions (SRCs) and related brain injuries, it is that very little is clear about the current science. In relating its consequential content to the Ford Pinto case, it would seem that the application of ethics had been dismissed in favour of profits, reputation and unethical practices. Today, having a formalized code of business ethics is more important than ever. This statistic is up 61% from 2002-2007, perhaps reflecting an improvement of awareness and reporting. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is to in some sense maximize utility, which is often defined in terms of well-being or related concepts. Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical question “What ought a person to do?” The answer is that a person ought to act so as to produce the best consequences … 2. [21] Adnan A. Hirad, A Common Neural Signature of Brain Injury in Concussion and Subconcussion, Science Advances 5(8), Aug. 2019. [49] Lisa Bero, Industry Sponsorship and Research Outcome: A Cochrane Review, JAMA Internal Medicine, 173(7): 580-581 (2013). Reducing tackling in practices has reduced overall concussion numbers among high school players, even though the number of concussions in games has risen slightly. utilitarianism meaning: 1. the system of thought that states that the best action or decision in a particular situation is…. This leaves a great deal of room for criticism, as people weigh in on individual theories, and how they relate to one another. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(19)31097-8.pdf, Greshko, Michael, “Ancient Bird Foot Found in Amber Has Bizarrely Long Toes,” National Geographic, July 11, 2019.   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/07/fossil-bird-in-amber-has-unusually-long-toes/, Lawton, Graham, “Blood Amber: The Exquisite Trove of Fossils Fueling War in Myanmar,” NewScientist, May 1, 2019. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24232280-600-blood-amber-the-exquisite-trove-of-fossils-fuelling-war-in-myanmar/, Nelson, Alexandrea, “The Materiality of Morality: Conflict Minerals,” Utah Law Review, 2014: 1, p. 219 (2014). [4] Center for Disease Control, at https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/index.html. 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