THE FORD PINTO CASE: THE VALUATION OF LIFE AS IT APPLIES TO THE NEGLIGENCE-EFFICIENCY ARGUMENT Christopher Leggett Law & Valuation Professor Palmiter Spring, 1999 Abstract Text of Paper Abstract The cases involving the explosion of Ford Pinto's due to a defective fuel system design led to the debate of many issues, most centering around the use by Ford of a cost-benefit analysis and the ethics surrounding its decision not to upgrade the fuel system based on this analysis. ISSUE Should
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PINTO FIRES CASE The assumption that ‘it’s easy to be ethical’ assumes that individuals automatically know that they are facing an ethical dilemma and that they should simply choose to do the right thing. But decision makers may not always recognize that they are facing a moral issue. Rarely do decisions come with waving red flags. Dennis Gioia was recall coordinator at Ford Motor Company in the early 1970s when the company decided not to recall the Pinto despite dangerous fires that were
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1970’s the Ford Motor Company produced a Ford Pinto that they deemed reasonable to sale to their consumers in order to make a maximum profit. However, the car they hurriedly produced lacked some safety features that ended up costing numerous people their lives. Ford knew about these problems but continued with the production anyways; therefore, Ford is responsible for the death of the people who were killed in the accidents in the Ford Pinto because of their faulty parts. In this case, Ford should have
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your business, could invariably save your business far more than money. Here we will explore the ethical decisions made by Ford Motor Company after research found their Ford Pinto to be unsafe in rear-end collisions. In an effort to beat out strong foreign competition from in the small car market, Ford Motor Company produced the Ford Pinto in 1970. Before this time, Ford dominated in the production of larger vehicles and never was considered a contender in the small car market. Lee Iacocca wanted
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Legal matters in business and society as a whole have changed greatly over the past couple of decades; and not necessarily for the better. Between attorneys wanting to make a buck at any cost, and business owners losing their diplomacy skills in exchange for resenting and milking others who they think have wronged them, the need for legal services has exploded in the United States (U.S.). At the dawn of the 21st century, law is as important in society and business as is marketing, advertising and
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Business Case (The Ford Pinto) There was strong competition for Ford in the American small-car market from Volkswagen and several Japanese companies in the 1960's. To fight the competition, Ford rushed its newest car the Pinto into production in much less time than is usually required to develop a car. The regular time to produce an automobile is 43 months but Ford took 25 months only (Satchi, L., 2005). Although Ford had access to a new design which would decrease the possibility of the Ford Pinto
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Business Ethics:Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality, defines whistle blowing as, “the attempt of an employee or former employee of an organization to disclose what he or she believes to be wrongdoing in or by the organization” (Griffin). How does one choose if wrongdoing has happened in a utilitarianistic view? To present the process of utilitarian theory in a whistleblowing case, I ran across documentation referencing Ford Motor Company’s manufacturing of the Ford Pinto the early 1970’s. Petersen
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philosophicalinvestigations - a site dedicted to ethical thinking (rather than one page summaries!!! Though I'm afraid I do add those at exam time - market pressures!). I hope you enjoy this case study which also has a powerpoint that goes with it. There's plenty of other useful material on this site - case studies, handouts, powerpoints and summaries, and also I have written a number of books including best-selling revision guides and a useful book on 'How to Write Philosophy Essays". Click here for
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The Pinto Ford case was generated in the 1970’s thru 1980’s when the company was building small impact cars which has issues related to the fuel tanks discharging and causing the cars to explode. This was the largest evert reported. There were several lawsuits against Ford. It is to my belief, Ford knew that the gas tanks had problems and they ignored the warning signs, because they well in the requirements of government regulations (Leggett, 1999). It is my opinion, the Ford Company was thinking
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Risk/Benefit Analysis The main controversy surrounding the Ford Pinto case was The Ford Motor Company's choices made during development to compromise safety for efficiency and profit maximization. More specifically, it was Ford's decision to use the cost/benefit analysis detailed in section 11 to make production decisions that translated into lost lives. During the initial production and testing phase, Ford set "limits for 2000" for the Pinto. That meant the car was not to exceed $2000 in cost or 2000
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