Question

A bill has just been introduced in the Legislature, with wide bi-partisan support, that would create a database for creating a "network" of information by which to track non-documented workers and potential terrorists. The information that would be accessed includes information from driver’s licenses, and requests for government services. In addition, the legislation would require all manufacturers of software to embed a code in their product which would allow tracking of internet use as well as sales on the computer. No notice would be given to the consumer other than the general notice that the measure has become law.

Please complete each section of this worksheet. Some people find that writing the answers out on another page and then "cutting and pasting" them into the worksheet lets you think through the problem better.

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Be Reasonable: Explore the Options

1. Components of the Practice
   Choose three options to analyze. You will analyze multiple options to help ensure that you choose a reasonable option to implement.
   
   After brainstorming with the leadership team, you have identified four options:
   
   1. Remain silent.
      
   2. Lobby against the bill.
      
   3. Lobby for the bill.
      
   4. Provide information and let your employees choose whether or not to lobby.

   In this step, identify the components of the practice as defined by the ethical agent. Please consider four elements: (1) standards of excellence; (2) rules that must be followed; (3) internal goods achieved; and (4) external goods achieved.
   
   

2. Expectations of the Community

   Now -- what are the expectations of the community, the stake-holders, for a person who is excellent in this practice? Any option which does not meet the basic competencies is by definition an unethical option.
   
   

3. Core Virtues

   Next, considering your options, which one best meets the requirements of the core virtues: integrity, courage, justice, and civility?
   
   

4. Unity of Life

   Now, reflecting on the options, which one best meets the ethical actor's requirements for unity of life? Which one best exemplifies the standards of a life as a whole?
   
   

5. Core Commitments

   Finally, consider which option is most consistent with the ethical actor's core commitments. Which option has the potential to energize and transform both the ethical actor and the community?

Answer 1

The bill has only been proposed in the Legislature, with strong bipartisan support, which will create a database to establish a "network" of information to track undocumented workers as well as suspected terrorists. The information that will be collected contains driver license records, and government service requests. Moreover, the bill would require all software manufacturers to integrate a code into their device that would allow monitoring both internet usage and computer sales. The user will provide notification rather than the general warning that the proposal has become law.

A database in order to build a network to monitor undocumented immigrants and terrorists in an attempt to eliminate terrorist outbreaks by collecting customers' driving licenses is tedious to concealment and is a clear breach of privacy laws. Every citizen has the right to have their private interests confidential and covered. The bill is a denial of the whole bill of rights.

The bill could certainly protect the nation's interests and wide-ranging illegal immigration and illegal jobs but would compromise the rights of all customers who are also the country's citizens. Thus, while the bill is for the public good, it undermines the problem of virtue ethics. The main points of this bill will be to monitor the undocumented workers thus strengthening immigration laws and detaining illegal immigrants from the country, which will contribute to better welfare and less deprivation and crime incidence.

The benefits of happiness offered are optimum for government and much less for each person. It cannot provide the greater good for the largest number of citizens, but it is important to track the workforce. Each citizen is entitled to the benefit of protection of his fundamental freedoms and this legislation attempts to infringe the same. The right to notice is a constitutionally protected right and the constitution also grants and endows the right to speak.

While it is in the government's interest to record the theory of the workforce providing social and economic equality to all, the way it works does not represent either the basis of equal opportunities or the theory of reflective equilibrium, which gives the best benefit to the least favored without excessively burdening people who are extremely favored.