07 Jul Group Discussion: What should Heinz do?
In this assignment, you will practice ethical reasoning. Ethical reasoning plays two roles:
- It highlights acts that improve the well-being of people.
- It highlights acts that harm the well-being of people.
“In civilized societies, people have individual rights, but it is vital that these rights coincide with the collective rights of society as a whole. A person being denied personal rights due to the greater good of society may feel the decision conflicts with his own ethical reasoning. While some people believe that a persons individual rights should be preserved regardless of the benefit or harm to society, others deem it more important that the common good and justice be considered in a civilized society. These opposing beliefs are a result of individual ethical reasoning.” ()
Read the following scenario:
In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered.
The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.
So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? (Kohlberg, 1963)
There are two parts to this assignment:
1. Using ethical reasoning, explain why you think Heinz should or should not have stolen the drug. (150+) words.
