Kiyon Gaines
PHIL 391-01
January 22, 2012
Ford’s Fault

How can you place a value on a person’s life? This is exactly what the Ford Motor Company did when assessing the cost vs. the benefits concerning their faulty production of the Ford Pinto. It had been found that the fuel bladder was not installed in the correct place so that when this vehicle was struck from behind it caused leakage. This leakage could then result in the car combusting and causing harm and in worse case scenarios death. This “ glitch” was something that the company was well aware of before the car actually went into production. Many safety tests were performed, and the car failed to meet the safety and quality standards that were set by the NHTSA. Yet, despite the results millions of vehicles were produced and sold to the public. It was found in their cost/benefit analysis that the costs of correcting the problem for all of the vehicles in production would be $137.5 million vs. the “benefit”, which is death and injury, which would “only” be $49.5 million. How can they see the death and harm of people as a benefit? This is a thoroughly consequentialist view point. In their mind the end result of making the adjustments would cause more harm to the company (i.e. higher costs) than risking just a few lives. I do not agree with this assessment. I believe that we cannot place a price on a person’s life. I stand by my argument that if you know something will cause harm, especially death, to another person and it is in your power to prevent this then you have a moral obligation to do no harm! A person’s life is far more valuable than any monetary value and for this matter I would go as far to say that human life is priceless. Ford was at fault for many of the injuries and deaths that were caused by this faulty product, and they should be held responsible at a cost that is much