Instructions for Business Ethics Discussion - Week 12 After reading the enclosed article from National Geographic, entitled "Eating Meat has 'dire' consequences for the planet," create a thread in the

C CBC Legal Studies – Business Law I

A n OER Textbook for MNGT 140

A. Ends v . Means

A Foundational Question

In business ethics, do the means justify the ends , or do the ends justify the means? Is it beer to hav e a set

of rules telling you what you ought to do in any particular situation and then let the chips fall where they

may, or should you worry more about how things are going to end up and do whatev er’s necessary to

reach that goal?

U ntil recently, Eddy Lepp ran an organic medicine business in Northern California. His herbal product

soothed nausea and remedied vomiting, especially as suﬀered by chemo patients. He had a problem,

though. While his business had been OK’ d by California regulators, federal agencies hadn’t approv ed: on

the national level, selling his drug w as breaking the law. On the other hand, not selling his remedy had a

signiﬁcant downside: it w as consigning his clients to debilitating suﬀering. So when federal agents came

knocking on his door, he had to make a decision.

If the means justify the ends—if you should follow the rules no maer the consequences—then when the

agents ask Lepp point blank whether he’s selling the medicine, the ethical action is to admit it. He should

tell the truth even though that will mean the end of his business. On the other hand, if the ends justify the

means—if your ethical interest focuses on the consequences of an act instead of what you actually do—

then the ethics change. If there’s a law forcing people to suﬀer unnecessarily, it should be broken. And

when the agents ask him whether he’s selling, he’s going to hav e an ethical reason to lie.

A cross the entire ﬁeld of traditional ethics, this is a foundational distinction. Is it what you do that

maers, or the consequences? It’s hard to get oriented in ethics without making a preliminary decision

between these two. No one can make the decision for you, but before anyone can make it, an

understanding of how each works should be reached.

A ribution and licensing: Business and the Legal Environment. Authored by : Anonymous. Provided by :

Anonymous. Located at : hp://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/business-and-the-legal-environment/

(hp://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/business-and-the-legal-environment/) . License : CC BY-NC-SA:

Aribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (hps://creativ ecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) .

hps://courses.lumenlearning.com/buslegalenv/

(hps://courses.lumenlearning.com/buslegalenv/chapter/3-8-alternativ e-means-of-resolving-disputes/)

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