Acting as a recall coordinator would by no means be an easy task. However, if I were to put myself in that role, here is what I believe I would do following the eight-step method to ethical decision making.
The first step is identifying the relevant facts. In the Pinto Fires Case, I believe there are six large facts that are the most relevant to determining whether a recall is the appropriate course of action. The first fact is that Ford Motor Company discovered the issue before the Pinto was released. With many recalls, the issues are not discovered until after the products in question are released, but Ford knew about this major issue and released the car anyways. The second crucial fact builds off the previous one – Ford knew how to fix the issue. They had found three possible solutions through their testing, but did not implement any of them. The third relevant fact is that Ford had shortened their amount of preparation time to release it earlier. This was something that had never been done before, so the fact that they cut down the amount of time they were spending on preparing this car by over a year was a recipe for disaster. The fourth fact to consider is the fact that Ford Motor Company was within the legal standards at the time. While Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 301 had been proposed, it had not been adopted, so Ford’s move was legal. Furthermore as the fifth fact, in the 1970s, consumers were not nearly as concerned with safety. In fact, Ford had previously added a relatively costly safety feature only to find that it added no appeal to the consumers. The final fact is the fact that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had as part of their regulations the cost-benefit analysis, which allowed a company to make a decision based on if the benefits were greater than the cost.
The second step is to identify the ethical