PHL Business and professional ethics class

The 'Poisoned' Product Assignment - Searching for a Controversy Free Product

Bananas are associated with exploited workers and a depleted ozone layer, so every time you eat a banana you are making it harder for your future grandchildren to breathe. If a banana isnt free of controversy, what is? Your task is to write a biography of a product including any moral controversy that goes along with it. Some examples include: Gold is extracted by a method that contaminates the local environment. T-shirts come from cotton that was grown in fields that could have produced soy, and beef comes from pastures that could have produced corn - both of which could feed more people. Select a product or service and determine if it is controversy free. You can either A. Choose a product you think is likely free of controversy, and then do the research and see if you are right or B. Select any product you are sure likely has a controversy associated with it, and then tell us about that controversy. Here are some questions you will want to address: 1. Where do the raw materials for this product come from?

2. What labor conditions are present for the workers of the raw materials? 3. How do the raw materials get turned into the final product? 4. What ethical considerations are present for the product? 5. What, if anything, should be done to stop this product from being produced or change the way it is produced, if anything?