Eth 501

"Touro University International"

ETH 501

Module 1 Case Assignment

Coordinator Professor

Dr. Steven Jay Gold

Core Faculty

Fadia Alkhalil

As the Chief Executive Officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., Martha Stewart did not handle her indictment responsibly. During the course of this paper several points for and against this statement will be argued.

The case against Martha Stewart surrounded her sale of 3, 928 shares in ImClone Systems Inc., and whether or not she lied to investigators and her company’s investors. She was charged with making false statements, conspiracy and obstruction of justice; all to avoid a loss of $51,000 dollars to her million dollar portfolio.

Martha Stewart is an ethical egoist, as obvious by her actions she truly only cared about herself and not the general population or her own business and employees. By selling the shares of ImClone Systems from an insider tip, she prevented a small loss to her portfolio but created a huge loss to her shareholders and the trust that the general public had in her.

It makes you wonder what kind of rational she used when making this moral choice. Did she not do a cost/benefit analysis and determine if her actions would create more happiness than unhappiness? The answer to this could go one of two ways, first she could have only been thinking of herself and did what most average people would do; if you get a tip and find out you could prevent yourself from losing money, naturally you would take that tip and follow through with it. Martha Stewart was not the average person though; she was the CEO of a major corporation and had a responsibility to not only herself but to numerous other people. The second way her actions could have gone after doing her cost/benefit analysis, is that she could have been thinking as a Utilitarian, always looking to the long term and trying to see how the greatest good for the greatest number of people could be effected...