Reference no: EM133232968

Case: It is early March 2020. The COVID pandemic has just begun. Schools are shutting down around the country. Some businesses are either closing or on the verge of closing. Consider the following fictitious cases of a medical supply store owner and an employee.

A medical supply store has been sitting on a huge surplus of medical grade surgical and N95 masks. The World Health Organization has warned of a shortage of personal, protective medical equipment (PPE). The price for these masks has skyrocketed; these items are now selling through online vendors for many times their regular price. The local hospital is predicting major shortages for PPE and has put in an order for ALL of the masks available. But the hospital has a limited budget and will only pay the pre-pandemic price, and the hospital does not know that the store has such a large surplus stock. The medical supply store's business has suffered over the years due to direct online and international suppliers and is on track to close soon if business does not turn up. Hospitals have been more than eager to drop doing business with the local store. The store owner knows an online vendor who could easily sell the inventory for a huge profit.

A National Medical Emergency was declared in February. The store owner is uncertain about the legalities and liabilities of selling the inventory online to the highest bidder. A decision must be made about what to do with the masks.

An employee of the medical store knows about the surplus of masks, but the store owner keeps her out of the loop as far as the decision of how the masks will be sold. The employee has a dear friend. Her friend has elderly parents and desperately wants to buy masks. She told her friend about the situation, and her friend begged her to sell her some masks. The store owner has taken the masks off the shelves and is not offering them for sale to the public. The masks are sitting in a large storage area. "The owner won't miss a few masks," the employee thinks. "It will just be considered a minor inventory error."

Question 1- Identify at least one ethical (the main ethical issue, in your opinion), one legal and one economic issue in at least ONE of these two cases (the owner and the employee). Then, explain why the ethical is an ethical issue. What it is about this issue which makes it "ethical

Question 2- Try to imagine yourself in the position of ONE of these people, either the owner or the employee. Address the following questions: a) How would you address the ethical issue? b) Why? c) In your response to b) focus on describing not just the reasons for your decision, but something about your moral values and beliefs, and how those values and beliefs influence your general approach. Be as honest as you can, and do not be afraid to explain conflicts in your thinking or approach.