You are now a supervisor in the bioengineering department of a major motorcycle helmet manufacturer. Your engineers are testing motorcycle helmets manufactured by a variety of your competitors. Motorcycle helmets contain an inner liner that crushes upon impact to decrease the deceleration of the head on impact. This liner material is very expensive and can be used only once (i.e., once the helmet sustains a single impact it must be replaced). Your company has developed an inexpensive liner that will withstand multiple impacts but is less effective on the initial impact than any of your competitors. The vice president for Sales is anxious to get this new helmet on the market and is threatening to fire you if you do not release it to the manufacturing division. What do you do?

a. Since your company has invested a lot of money in the development of this helmet, you should release it, and besides, if you don’t, someone else will.

b. Recommend continued testing until your company’s product is at least as good as the worst competitor’s product.

c. Contact your company’s legal department to warn them of a potential product liability problem and ask for their advice.

d. Go over the vice president’s head and explain the problem to the company’s president.

Use the Engineering Ethics Matrix format to summarize your conclusions.