A Case in Ethics

You work for a company that makes sleepwear for children. Your major fabric supplier has just forwarded to you a large shipment covering much of your fabric needs for the upcoming season. The material is given a final quality assurance test at your manufacturing facility and while it meets the specifications you gave the fabric supplier, the ANSI standards (national standards) for sleepwear have changed and the material is found to be not as fire retardant as is now necessary. You will not be in compliance with Federal regulations if you manufacture the sleepwear. Your company is dependent upon this shipment of fabric to keep its manufacturing facility up and running and to meet customer delivery requirements.

Discuss the various ethical dilemmas' facing you at this point.

Should you use the fabric anyway, at least until you find a suitable replacement? After all, you will have to close your manufacturing down if you don't use the fabric. Discuss the issue of keeping your plant working vs putting out a product viewed essentially as unsafe y the Federal government. Assuming for just a moment that you could not find a fast replacement, and also assuming that the fabric supplier will not take the material back (after all, they followed your specifications) what do you think about sending the fabric overseas to a market that, as yet, has not banned the use of this fabric. How does the idea of social responsibility apply in this scenario.

Discuss, in general, the concepts of universalism and relativism as you might apply them to this case.