An Ethical Analysis of Case Study the Sole Supplier

What is more important life or mitigating financial loss? The case of “The Sole Remaining Supplier” looks at that question. In 1975 pacemaker technology was in its early years. The technology was so new that doctors were not very skilled at the installation of the pacemakers. Once installed these units acted as the patient’s normal heartbeat and any malfunction would have caused certain death. The pacemaker units were very sensitive and there had been a story of a “patient pulling the pacemaker wire in his chest, and dying after yawning deeply,” (Sole, para. 3). Stanton Medical Technologies manufactured these pacemakers. Stanton had only one transistors supplier because others would not sell to them. The Stanton Medical Technologies did not have an adequate check for the transistors reliability. Stanton needed transistors in the manufacturing of the pacemakers. Their sole supplier doesn’t want to supply them any more with the transistors. The transistor suppliers felt that it could also be legally responsible for damages if a major lawsuit were to be brought against Stanton. Any profit made from selling to Stanton for pacemaker manufacturing would be consumed by potential losses from legal proceedings. This isn’t a fiscally sound risk for the transistor supplier. The transistor supplier holds Stanton’s future in its hands. If they don’t supply the transistors, Stanton will go out of business, pacemakers will not be made and the people who need them will die. The transistor supplier must decide on the best course of action for the ethical dilemmas faced.

The ethical issues the transistor supplier faced were many. The supplier must weigh the option of continuing to sell the transistors to Stanton against the possible financial loss if a lawsuit were to occur and how that lawsuit would affect its employees and shareholders. The supplier must also look at its own transistor technology. How many deaths will occur because of malfunctions with the transistors? By not...