BP oil spill on April 20. 2010 events

Assume following parties involved:

Obama response

Department of defense response

Department of Health and Human service response

Depart of Energy response

BP vice president response

Identifying and defining the actual ethical challenge

1. All agents have certain rights and duties/obligations attached to their agency or action

2. These rights and duties/obligations take different forms include ethical/moral rights, duties and obligations, economic rights, duties and obligations, political rights, duties and obligations, cultural rights, duties and obligations

3. Start to identify the actual ethical or moral questions is by asking: who are the stakeholders? What are the values, rights, freedoms and other considerations at issue for each of the stakeholders? What is involved in the interactions among the stakeholders? How are being affected by the interaction among the stakeholders?

4. Although there are several stakeholder positions, there should only be one primary big moral challenge questions.

a. What are the key issues and obligations as moral challenges including associated risks, dangers, uncertaintles and/or opportunities?

b. Answer the questions: are the moral challenges? – personal-involving one or more individuals, – organizational: involving many people or classes of people in the organizations, – external: involving the role of the organization in the broader community

c. What are the competing moral claims and obligations and how will you assess and prioritize them?

d. Factual predicate: what are the essential facts, paying particular attention to how the situation arose?

e. Stakeholders and decision makers: who are the key stakeholders and decision makers: and what potential impact could the ethical challenge have upon them?

f. What parameters- time, resources, etc-constrain or limit responses to this situation and what response option are available

g. Defining moment for the organizations’ character and integrity

h. Explain the decision clearly and taking into account

i. How will the outcomes of the decision be monitored and evaluated

j. Will it be possible to modify the decision? How? Under what circumstances?