Ethics Scenario B
An excellent answer would clearly delineate the differences between each of the standards for ethical decision making and would persuasively make the case for a particular solution. Vacation cruises have become very popular. Approximately 85 cruise ships, primarily based in Miami, FL, offer three, five, and seven day trips to Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Some of these cruise ships are very large, carrying 2,000 to 3,000 passengers and 500 to 700 staff, the equivalent of a small town. The large cruise ships are essentially floating hotels, but unlike land-based hotels, they are not connected to municipal water and sewer systems. They carry the fresh water needed for drinking, washing, laundry, and kitchen use in huge tanks. Human wastes from toilets are stored in large tanks that are pumped our when the ship returns to home port. Nonhuman wasters are stored in much smaller tanks that are discharged, each night, at sea. The nonhuman wastes are called “gray water,” which bring to mind the soapy water from baths and showers. That is certainly included but also included is waster from the ships laundry, kitchen, and garbage disposals.
The quality of seawater and marine life declined substantially in the areas frequented by cruise ships. Shipping executives assert that the chemical (soap and other cleaning agents) and biological materials quickly disperse in the wave actions of the sea. Shipping company officials maintain that the decline in marine life and water quality is mainly the result of poor waste treatment practices on the islands themselves and to overfishing.
An official in the companies that own the cruise ships says they cannot afford to carry tanks large enough to store all of the nonhuman wastes until they return to the home port. The ships add fresh water to their thanks when they stop at the islands. However, those ports do not have waster treatment plants large enough to accept either the human or non-human wastes for processing. The space needed for larger tanks to store nonhuman wastes would, company officials claim, substantially take away from the space available for the accommodation of paying passengers. Ship designers had estimated that it would decrease passenger
MGT303 EXAM POOL QUESTIONS
Accommodations by 15-20% to add the necessary tanks. The tanks would also display below water housing for crew forcing the companies to move crew housing into current space for paying guests. Executives believe that these changes would require a 15 to 20 percent increase in cruise prices to make up for the lost revenue.
The island nations do not like gray water dumping just of their coasts but they are dependent on the dollars that tourism brings and cruise ships are a big part of this business. Island nations that have objected too strongly in the past have been told that the cruise ships would simply find a different port-of-call. International maritime law provides no assistance to those nations, as it is not illegal to dump such wastes “at-sea” which is usually defined as three miles off shore. Several Caribbean nations appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) citing problems such as external rashes and internal tumors showing up on marine animals. The WHO said it had no authority to acts as long as it could not be proven that human health was affected.
As an executive at the cruise lines, what course of action would you recommend? Please describe the different ways an executive at the cruise lines might make a decision about what to do using the different ethical perspectives (utilitarian, rights, fairness or justice, common good, virtue) we discussed in class. Of these, either individually or in combination, what course of action would you favor and why?