Ethics

Ethics often plays a crucial role in the business world.  In this case we are talking about DuPont and the C8 issues in Parkersburg.  There are six types of ethics we talked about in class that pertain to this issue.  These include personal, community, professional, corporate, federal, and state ethics.  Ethics are defined as how a person, group, or organization makes moral judgments concerning what’s right and what’s wrong.   In this article we are going to talk specifically about professional ethics concerning the DuPont case.  DuPont is one of the worlds biggest chemical company’s; it was founded as a black powder manufacturer in 1802.  DuPont has a large factory is Parkersburg West Virginia.

The town of Parkersburg heavily depends on this factory to employee its citizens.  It is almost certain that everyone who lives in Parkersburg either works at DuPont, or knows multiple other people who do.  Because of the service that DuPont provides the town, many of the people who live there are very loyal to the company.  So when farmer Wilbur Tennant brought to attention that his cows were dying left and right, and blamed DuPont for it, the town turned against him.  DuPont had been releasing a chemical into a stream that ran threw Wilbur Tennant’s farm.  This chemical is referred to as C8 and is used in manufacturing of Teflon.  

The chemical was actually developed by 3M, and they were sure to warn DuPont of its dangers to human health.   Regardless of the well-known health effects on humans and animals, the C8 contamination was largely ignored.  While all 6 types of ethics listed earlier pertain to this case, we are going to focus on professional ethics.   The Tennant’s wanted veterinarians to look at their sick and dying cattle. 

Long story short, the veterinarians found poor husbandry to be the cause of death.  In other words, they were telling this family of life long cattlemen, they didn’t know how to take care of their cows.  The vets knew there was something wrong with the cows, and they also knew DuPont was to blame.  These people exhibited very poor professional ethics, oppose to doing the write thing they lied and kept the real cause of sickness undisclosed.  The Tennants had to find a veterinarian far away from Parkersburg to actually get the proof they were after.  But its not just cows that were treated this way; people were denied medical attention as well.  When a person would go to the nearby hospital claiming medical complications due to C8, not only would the medical staff not examine them, they wouldn’t even talk to them.  Again, this is a perfect example of an absolute abomination of professional ethics.   Out of all the industries, the medical industry should be the one that withholds the highest ethical standards.  However, pressure from DuPont pushed professionals to constantly wrong the Tennants, and people of Parkersburg suffering from medical issues.  Many professionals actually work under an ethical code, and breaking this code is actually the same as breaking the law.  DuPont employees also demonstrated very poor professional ethics.  They knew the chemical to be dangerous.  So why was it openly disposed into our waterways?  Why were employees being exposed to it even though it was causing their children to have birth defects?  All these professionals demonstrated very poor professional ethics.