Assume you are an engineer working for a chemical production company. You are on the technical team that is responsible for deciding what to do about the dangerous chemical that your company is using to produce its best-selling chemical product. Recent reports have just made known the dangers of this chemical, and the company now needs to decide how to proceed. There are several options to consider: stop producing the harmful product altogether and take a hit on total profits; continue to make the product and sell it, like nothing’s wrong, since the federal government has not cracked down. You could also spend money and engineering efforts in R&D to develop a safe chemical that would take its place. There is no guarantee that this would happen any time soon, but the scientists think it is realistically possible. To make matters worse, your biggest competitor produces this harmful product off-shore and is not hampered by the US regulations. If you stop producing this product altogether, the financial positions of the company would be at risk to some extent. Additional marketing efforts would have to be made to sell other products to gain back the lost revenue and profits.

Consider the possible decisions and the ethics of this situation. Take into account, safety, costs, profits, competition, etc. Discuss what you would propose as a member of the decision team and why you would propose it.