While the lawyers are working on the legal thumbs-up for Finley, Nate discovers an opportunity that he
Question:
While the lawyers are working on the legal thumbs-up for Finley, Nate discovers an opportunity that he and Nikki might be able to pursue. While in Costa Rica on a business/surfing trip, Nate checks on the supply line of the coffee beans coming to Wilmington. In doing so, he's accompanied by his surfing buddy, Kevin. Kevin tells him about a style of coffee bean that a lot of the U.S. companies buying beans in the area just don't know about.
The two sit down in a little caf near the beach, and Kevin orders a couple of "robusta" coffees. Nate sips and notices the strong, but sweet and nutty flavor. "Not bad" he quips. He and Kevin talk about the morning's surf and pretty soon Nate is feeling a little jittery. He's anxious to get back out in the water and his leg is starting to bounce up and down.
"You're feelin' it" exclaims Kevin. "Feelin' what?" asks Nate. "The robusta" answers Kevin. "It's the strongest coffee ever produced. These beans are the bomb!" "Dang!" remarks Nate. "This stuff is wild."
He brings a few bags of Robusta back to Wilmington. At the coffee shop, Nate serves up some potent mugs for himself and Nikki. "Well?' he asks. "Wow!" says Nikki. "And this stuff is legal?" she asks.
"It is. I did some checking ... It has 58.2 mg of caffeine per fluid ounce. The big coffee shops' dark roast only has 21 mg per ounce. An energy drink only has 9.5" He responds.
"I'm gonna go get another cup" Nikki answers quickly, "You want another hit?" she asks.
"No thanks." Says Nate. "Remember, I had that think with my heart back when I was a kid, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't."
Pretty soon, Nikki has thought of a whole new marketing plan for Fin's Up's latest brew. The "Great White Attack" would couple the robusta bean brew with white chocolate and whipped cream. It's a sugar and caffeine extravaganza. The flavor - sweet. The kicker - energy! The perfect thing for a coffee shop in a college town with and early morning surfer population. She even thought of the advertising. A meaner, rougher looking Finley with bloody teeth.
"I checked with the lawyers. We might want to put a disclaimer on the side of the cup when we serve it. You know, to warn people with heart conditions and stuff." says Nate. "It's apparently pretty rough for people with high blood pressure too."
Nikki's excitement starts to fade a little bit. After introducing the "Great White Attack" to friends and family, the response is overwhelmingly positive. Everyone loves the taste and the energy boost is an added bonus. "We could make a lot of money off of this product." Says Nate, who has stopped drinking the robusta coffee altogether. "Yeah, then why don't I feel better about it?" asks Nikki.
Nate and Nikki have to decide whether to market a product that could offer substantial benefits both to themselves and their customers but might also have potentially serious side effects for a small percentage of users. How should they decide whether to sell the product? How does the standard of ethics that is applied affect this answer? Explain how they would respond using different ethical analyses.
Instructions: This one is a little bit different. Instead of a legal analysis, utilize the information from the lectures and the text regarding ethical analysis. Specifically, identify the different type of ethical analyses that could be used and the resulting decision based upon the application of these different ways of analyzing an ethical dilemma. Utilizing the information from the text and lecture videos, respond to the above question including a thorough ethical analysis of the subject matter. Keep your response to one (1) page.