MEMBERS: Jhonnavik Shayne Chong Adan, Divina Bating, Frank Benedict Generalao, Kyneth

John Oberes, Ray Neigel Ramirez

Student 1: Jhonnavik Shayne Chong Adan

Contemporary Ethical Issues on Labor Conditions In China

Article: Ethical Issue at Gucci in Shenzhen, China

Article: China’s Forced Labor Problem

What makes the situation that you selected an ethical issue?

A recent study discussed how Gucci, a multinational company with hundreds of stores
worldwide was able to generate revenue totaled 35.6% in the first half of 2011 through under
payment of labor and practicing inhumane working conditions. The company came under fire
when five former employees revealed the true nature of their labor conditions while working in
Gucci in Shenzhen, China. The malpractice of the Gucci company has raised concern all over the
world.

In another article, in 2007, it became publicly known that many people from rural areas
are kidnapped and forced to work in brick kiln in Shanxi province and this has been considered a
traditional slavery in kilns. It has also been revealed that the practice of withholding wages with
excessive working hours has been going on for decades. With this, protests have reached its peak
in China because of withheld salary payments. The negligence of the industries in China has
resulted in the world's concern regarding their violation of corporate ethics or code of conduct.

What is the ethical issue in your situation?

Gucci and other industries in China that practices inhumane working conditions,
withholding wages, kidnapping and forcing them to work in excessive working hours are
considered morally wrong and unethical because the corruption of the company deprives their
workers of the salary they deserve. Forcing someone to work through kidnapping also violates
the worker’s freedom. Companies that practices inhumane working conditions is also morally
wrong because no person should be placed in slavery, these treatments can lead to illness and
may even cause death.

Companies should respect and love their workers like how they love their own family and
friends even just by making their working conditions better, paying their salary on time and
forced labor should not be practiced because we are all humans and no one deserves to be
maltreated. We should do good and avoid evil.

Student 2: Divina N Bating

Contemporary Ethical Issues on Population Control
Article: Overpopulation and Procreative Liberty

What makes the situation an ethical issue

As of September 2020, the current world population is 7.8 billion according to the most
recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer. The increasing human population is
putting large amounts of pressure on our natural resources and is contributing to climate change.
While the world's resources are limited, increasing population figures are adding pressure on
both our available resources and the rate of climate change.
The idea of limiting population growth has become anathema in the intervening decades.
One of the examples for this is the “one child policy” in China. Overpopulation and population
growth have received scant attention in philosophical discussions of climate change and virtually
none in climate change policy, despite the fact that overpopulation is arguably the most important
factor behind climate change.
The ethical issue in the situation
What makes this an ethical issue is that it violates the procreative liberty or the freedom
to make your own choices regarding procreation. It involves fertility control that is still a taboo
from most of the religion. Procreative liberty also protects well-being. In many people’s lives,
raising a family is one of the most important sources of well-being. On the other hand,
overpopulation is a threat to the quality of human life. We are using far too many resources, and
every person living on the planet is adding to that impact.

Student 3: Frank Benedict Generalao

Contemporary Ethical Issue on Criminal Reporting
Article: Obey Law on Criminal Reporting for a Pregnant Mother Addicted to Heroin?

What makes the situation that you selected an ethical issue?

The situation I have selected is an ethical issue because I am stuck with a dilemma of two
moral imperatives. Which is to report the mother who is likely to go jail or not to communicate
the mother to the police which is causing me to sin against the law.

What is the ethical issue in your situation

The ethical issue in my situation is to 1.) report the mother which will bolster the chance
of giving her a drug treatment program but might give her a criminal record, and a foster care
system for her baby which is marked by inconsistent quality of care giving. And lastly, 2.) Don’t
report the mother which might incline to her to use more heroin and most likely hinder fetal
development.

Student 4: Kyneth John P. Oberes

Contemporary Ethical Issues on Information and Technology
Video: Google reportedly mining personal health data raises privacy concerns
Video: Why Facebook's Data Scandal is a Big Deal
Blogpost: Facebook data privacy scandal

What makes the situation that you selected an ethical issue?

A recent study reveals that Google has been secretly compiling millions of Americans'
personal health data. Google is sharing knowledge with Ascension, a health organization that
involves over 2,600 hospitals and health care centers in 21 states, as first stated in the Wall Street
Journal. Hence, it raises concerns and queries whether the said company exercises its
corporate ethics or code of conduct.

The Facebook data privacy controversy, on the other hand, revolves around the collection
by the political consultancy and strategic analysis company Cambridge Analytica of personally
identifiable information from "up to 87 million individuals." Due to the confluence of several
factors, the company and others — were able to gain access to Facebook users ' data, generally
including insufficient protections against companies engaged in data collection, little or no
supervision of Facebook developers, Facebook API developer harassment, and users agreeing to
excessively broad terms and conditions. A period of apparent indifference to Facebook's data
privacy has resulted in revelations that entities have collected user information for targeted ads,
particularly political ads, for apparent success. Although Cambridge Analytica, the political
consultancy and strategic communication company behind the pro-Brexit Leave EU movement,
as well as the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, is the most well-known perpetrator
among other companies that have possibly used similar strategies to capture Facebook users'
personal data. This scandal is only one of the many that signify the danger of the modern
digital era and the internet of things as it depicts the ethical dilemmas among other human
rights violations.

The ethical issue in the situation

Google mining personal health data concerns and Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data
scandal are some of the many contemporary cases that expose the ethical dilemma in the digital
age and its violation for the personal privacy of its users as one of its rights.
Information Technology establishes the components used to store, retrieve, and
manipulate the data with the server providing an operating system at the bare minimum.
Information Technology has a wide variety of applications in the fields of education, business,
healthcare, manufacturing, banking, and scientific research. It is essential to gain awareness of
security concerns, privacy problems, and the key negative impacts of IT with the leading
developments in information technology. It is critical to know and to figure out the ethical issues
to deal with these problems in the IT society. Some of the ethical challenges that Information
Technology (IT) faces are personal privacy, access rights, harmful actions, patents, copyright,
trade secrets, liability, piracy, and the related.
In information technology, Personal Privacy is a crucial component of ethical problems.
IT allows it easier for users to have their hardware, operating system, and software tools to
access servers that are linked by a network to each other and users. Due to the wide-scale
delivery of the network, a large amount of data or information transmission takes place, resulting
in secret chances of exposing information and breaching some person or group's privacy. Holding
the privacy and security of data is a big challenge for the IT community and organizations. The
privacy dilemma also includes unintended disclosure to improper persons and requirements to
protect the quality of data.

Student 5: Ray Neigel Ramirez

Contemporary Case on Euthanasia
Video: Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide
Article: Ethical Problems Of Euthanasia

What makes the situation that you selected an ethical issue?

Euthanasia is an illegal act in most countries where a patient suffering from an incurable
disease or irreversible coma will be painlessly killed. In 1826, Latin manuscripts define it as
“skillful alleviation of suffering” which means to give the patient a gentle death with permission
to end the patient’s suffering.
It has been known that one person has no right to end the life of the other person.
Euthanasia shortens the suffering of the patient by killing them which most practitioners strongly
reject. However, those in favor of euthanasia believe that forcing someone to live in suffering and
pain is immoral. In assisted suicide, it also has the same ending, death.

The ethical issue in the situation

 Since euthanasia is all about taking someone’s life, then a lot of religions opposed to it.
Roman Catholics and Christians believe that life is a gift from God and that only God should end
it. Religious people based their views on what they believe in.

But people who are pro-euthanasia say that if a person has given consent for euthanasia
then there is no breach of respect for human life. The “right to die” is heavily used by these
people who advocate for euthanasia.

Their opponents fear that if euthanasia is made legal then it would be abused. Cases,
where people don’t really want to die, will be killed. The physicians’ healer role will be
questioned for being incompatible with inflicting death to its patients. This makes it hard to
define “healing”.

Bibliography

Blog Post

Patterson, D. (2020, July 30). Facebook data privacy scandal: A cheat sheet. Retrieved
September 23, 2020, from
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/facebook-data-privacy-scandal-a-cheat-sheet/

Videos

CBS This Morning. (2019, November 12). Google reportedly mining personal health
data raises privacy concerns. [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huj8YiJuAQI

Second Thought. (2018, April 13). Why Facebook's Data Scandal is a Big Deal. [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3W1I2_B6GA
Article

Santa Clara University. (n.d.). Obey Law on Criminal Reporting for a Pregnant Mother
Addicted to Heroin? Www.Scu.Edu. Retrieved September 28, 2020, from
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/bioethics/resources/obey-law-on-criminal-reporting-for-a
-pregnant-mother-addicted-to-heroin/

Greg Bognar (2019). Overpopulation and Procreation Liberty. Retrieved September 28,
2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21550085.2019.1652232#

Wang L. and Snell R.S. (2012). A case study of ethical issue at Gucci in Shenzhen, China.
Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13520-012-0024-6

Bengsten P. (2018). China’s Forced Labor Problem. Retrieved from

https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/chinas-forced-labor-problem/