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Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents Have Been Given Access to His Email?

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Submitted By riddoch
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Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents Have Been Given Access To His Email?
Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents have been given access to his email?

Table of Contents
Pg. 3 Introduction
Pg. 3 Utilitarian
Pg. 4 Deontological
Pg. 5 Yahoo’s Stance and overall outcome
Pg. 5 Conclusion
Pg. 6 References

The question was posed; Should Justin Ellsworth's Parents have been given access to his email? Justin Ellsworth was a US Marine killed in Iraq. After his death, his parents wanted access to his emails. Yahoo, his email service provided declined their request stating that their privacy policy prohibited them from disclosing the contents of his email to anyone. Now I was asked to review this from a utilitarian and deontological view.
Utilitarian
Utilitarian ethics is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its utility in providing happiness or pleasure as summed among all sentient beings. In laymen’s terms it means that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome or the greater good for the greatest amount of people. When I was doing my research into utilitarian ethics, I discovered there are many different types of utilitarian ethics, rule utilitarianism, act utilitarianism, two-level utilitarianism, motive utilitarianism, negative utilitarianism, average utilitarianism, and total utilitarianism. Although there are a lot of different types of utilitarian ethics, I will look at this problem using rule and act utilitarian.
Act utilitarianism states that, when faced with a choice, we must first consider the likely consequences of potential actions and, from that, choose to do what we believe will generate most pleasure. On the other hand rule utilitarian, one begins by looking at potential rules of action. To determine whether a rule should be followed, one looks at what would happen if it were constantly followed. If adherence

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Ethics 301 Module 1 Business Ethics

...deontological reasoning and explore the nature of privacy to answer the question; “Should Justin Ellsworth’s Parents have been given access to his email?” This is a very debatable question. It is my belief based upon my values and life experiences to take the position that his parents should not be given access to his e-mail. First, let us consider the utilitarian aspect of the question. Utilitarianism, as defined by the notes under the Module 1 home page, “the assessment of good versus bad consequences of an action and choosing the course of action that best serves the greatest good for the greatest number”. In the Ellsworth case there are many factors to consider. Positive factors include many interests by both parties. One example is the obligation for Yahoo as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to honor their contractual agreement. Another positive factor for Justin’s parents is the ability to gain some additional insight into his personal life, something they may need for personal closure and the parental need to know more about their son’s life. A negative aspect of this case is the ultimate disclosure of communications that were private between Justin and another individual. If he meant for his parents to receive a copy of the communication he could have simply courtesy copied or blind copied them on the email string. Another negative aspect is the fact that his emails contained his personal thoughts and ideas and were not meant nor intended to be read by anyone...

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