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Assignment 1
As an initiation into the study of ethics, carefully read each of the following scenarios. After
reflection, come up with your own answer to each of the questions.
Scenario 1
Alexis, a gifted high school student, wants to become a doctor. Because she comes from a poor
family, she will need a scholarship in order to attend college. Some of her classes require students to
do extra research projects in order to get an A. Her high school has a few older PCs, but there are
always long lines of students waiting to use them during the school day. After school, she usually
works at a part-time job to help support her family.
One evening Alexis visits the library of a private college a few miles from her family’s apartment,
and she finds plenty of unused PCs connected to the Internet. She surreptitiously looks over the
shoulder of another student to learn a valid login/password combination. Alexis returns to the library
several times a week, and by using its PCs and printers she efficiently completes the extra research
projects, graduates from high school with straight A’s, and gets a full- ride scholarship to attend a
prestigious university.
Questions
1. Did Alexis do anything wrong?
2. Who benefited from Alexis’s course of action?
3. Who was hurt by Alexis’s course of action?
4. Did Alexis have an unfair advantage over her high school classmates?
5. Would any of your answers change if it turns out Alexis did not win a college scholarship after all
and is now working at the Burger Barn?
6. Are there better ways Alexis could have accomplished her objective?
7. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?
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Scenario 2
An organization dedicated to reducing spam tries to get Internet service providers (ISPs) in an East
Asian country to stop the spammers by protecting their mail servers. When this effort is unsuccessful,
the anti-spam organization puts the addresses of these ISPs on its “black list.” Many ISPs in the
United States consult the black list and refuse to accept email from the blacklisted ISPs. This action
has two results. First, the amount of spam received by the typical email user in the United States drops
by 25 percent. Second, tens of thousands of innocent computer users in the East Asian country are
unable to send email to friends and business associates in the United States.
Questions
1. Did the anti-spam organization do anything wrong?
2. Did the ISPs that refused to accept email from the black listed ISPs do anything wrong?
3. Who benefited from the organization’s action?
4. Who was hurt by the organization’s action?
5. Could the organization have achieved its goals through a better course of action?
6. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?
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Scenario 3
In an attempt to deter speeders, the East Dakota State Police (EDSP) installs video cameras on all
of its freeway overpasses. The cameras are connected to computers that can reliably detect cars
traveling more than five miles per hour above the speed limit. These computers have sophisticated
image recognition software that enables them to read license plate numbers and capture high-
resolution pictures of vehicle drivers. If the picture of the driver matches the driver’s license photo of
one of the registered owners of the car, the system issues a speeding ticket to the driver, complete
with photo evidence. Six months after the system is put into operation, the number of people speeding
on East Dakota freeways is reduced by 90 percent.
The FBI asks the EDSP for real-time access to the information collected by the video cameras.
The EDSP complies with this request. Three months later, the FBI uses this information to arrest five
members of a terrorist organization.
Questions
1. Did the East Dakota State Police do anything wrong?
2. Who benefited from the actions of the EDSP?
3. Who was harmed by the actions of the EDSP?
4. What other courses of action could the EDSP have taken to achieve its objectives? Examine
the advantages and disadvantages of these alternative courses of action.
5. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?
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Scenario 4
You are the senior software engineer at a start-up company developing an exciting new product that
will allow sales people to generate and email sales quotes and customer invoices from their
smartphones.
Your company’s sales force has led a major corporation to believe your product will be available
next week. Unfortunately, at this point the package still contains quite a few bugs. The leader of the
testing group has reported that all of the known bugs appear to be minor, but it will take another
month of testing for his team to be confident the product contains no catastrophic errors.
Because of the fierce competition in the smartphone software industry, it is critical that your
company be the “first to market.” To the best of your knowledge, a well-established company will
release a similar product in a few weeks. If its product appears first, your start-up company will
probably go out of business.
Questions
1. Should you recommend release of the product next week?
2. Who will benefit if the company follows your recommendation?
3. Who will be harmed if the company follows your recommendation?
4. Do you have an obligation to any group of people that may be affected by your decision?
5. What additional information, if any, would help you answer the previous questions?
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Reflect on the process you used in each scenario to come up with your answers. How did you
decide if particular actions or decisions were right or wrong? Were your reasons consistent from one
case to the next? Did you use the same methodology in more than one scenario? If someone disagreed
with you on the answer to one of these questions, how would you try to convince that person that your
position makes more sense?
Ethics is the rational, systematic analysis of conduct that can cause benefit or harm to other
people. Because ethics is based in reason, people are required to explain why they hold the opinions
they do. This gives us the opportunity to compare ethical evaluations. When two people reach
different conclusions, we can weigh the facts and the reasoning process behind their conclusions to
determine the stronger line of thinking.
It’s important to note that ethics is focused on the voluntary, moral choices people make because
they have decided they ought to take one course of action rather than an alternative. Ethics is not
concerned about involuntary choices or choices outside the moral realm.
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Grading criteria
The grading criteria for this assignment will include: the extent to which your
pages contain all the things described in the previous section. The grades will record
only and only if you present your work.
Submission
Note that grammar, spelling, and writing mechanism do not contribute to the total
points for this assignment; however, improper grammar, poor spelling, or poor
writing mechanism may result in significant point deductions. Submit your reports
(Softcopy only) using Blackboard no later than Saturday, October 16, 2021.
