Media Ethics Assignment: Analyzing Ethical Theories in Case Studies

This assignment delves into media ethics through the examination of four case studies, each illustrating a different ethical theory. The first case study explores the Virtue Theory by analyzing the expanding investment opportunities for the LGBTQ community, highlighting the financial industry's evolving attitudes. The second case study applies Utilitarianism to the review of PMD safety certification in Singapore, focusing on the consequences for the public. The third case study uses Deontology to analyze a hit-and-run case, emphasizing the duties and obligations of individuals. Finally, the fourth case study discusses the abortion debate and the potential of artificial wombs through the lens of Utilitarianism, examining the consequences of different choices. Each case study provides a link to the original article and offers a concise analysis of the ethical principles involved.

Running head: MEDIA ETHICS
Media Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Week 1: Virtue Theory
Investing opportunities are expanding for the LGBTQ community
Section: Social
Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/investing-opportunities-are-expanding-for-the-
lgbtq-community.html?&qsearchterm=ethical%20article
Case Study:
This article discusses about the expanding opportunities of investment for the LGBTQ
community. This case is underlying in the Virtue Theory of ethics. Virtue Ethics is highly
subjective in the nature. Therefore, virtue can be illustrated in various ways. This case is one
of the ways, which discusses about the growing investing opportunities in the society for
LGBTQ community. It is considered that investment opportunities are now available for the
investor of LGBTQ community (Doan, 2015). These offerings are expanding day by day. In
financial industry, it is the attitude of reflecting changing in the outside or inside. The
financial industries are also spreading the awareness of the financial products, which are
important for constructing in the financial industry. This will appeal a concern for the
investors of LGBTQ.
In the progress reflection, the Americans LGBTQ community has built the limit of
investment of the financial products, which is tailored for their concern has been expanding
in size and scope. The main players of SRI space were created mutual funds with the fund of
the companies’ such as Domini Funds, Pax World Funds and Calvert Funds. These funds
provide a great exposer to the investor in SRI. They thought of the ability of focusing on the
concerns and issues of LGBTQ community. However, there is no option for the demographic
of diverse. Some of the investors of LGBTQ want to screen out the investment tightly for the

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moral and good ethical fit. However, the others are focusing on the financial performance.
The investment managers are allowing the investors, whose preference is more choice to the
narrow down for the specific criteria. They are allowing one investor to opt in or opt out in a
particular company or in a particular industry. Some industries can be objectionable to a
specific interest or an investor (Garvey & Drezner, 2013). Many small and large financial
industries are offering the products of ESG and SRI for doing a good work for covering up
the issues and concerns regarding the investors of LGBTQ.
It can be analyzed by the study that the potential of the LGBTQ investors can be
increased by recognizing the opportunities of investment in the concerns and issues of
LGBTQ. It will create a portfolio and positive impacts in return. It can be hoped that the
resources can be used by the investors for recognizing the opportunities, which will provide
advancement in the equality and rights of the LGBTQ (Johnson, 2014). These aspects will
lead and encourage the investors for pursuing the positive impacts and the opportunities in
the concern and issue of LGBTQ.
References
Doan, P. L. (2015). Why Plan for the LGBTQ Community?. In Planning and LGBTQ
Communities (pp. 1-15). Routledge.
Garvey, J. C., & Drezner, N. D. (2013). Advancement staff and alumni advocates:
Cultivating LGBTQ alumni by promoting individual and community uplift. Journal
of Diversity in Higher Education, 6(3), 199.
Johnson, M. (2014). The It Gets Better Project: A Study in (and of) Whiteness—in LGBT
Youth and Media Cultures. In Queer youth and media cultures (pp. 278-291).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.

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Week 2: Utilitarianism Theory
LTA to review end-2020 deadline for PMD safety certification after recent fire incidents
Section: Social
Link: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/lta-to-review-end-2020-deadline-for-pmd-
safety-certification-after-recent-fire-incidents
Case Study:
This article discusses about the review of LTA (Land Transport Authority) for the
safety certification for PMD (Personal Mobility Devices). This is based on the Utilitarianism
Theory of ethics. It can be defined as the ethical theory, which focuses on the result and the
consequences for the common people. The main goal is to reducing the suffering of most
people. This article is based on this situation of utilitarianism, which the LTA is planning to
review the safety certification of PMD (Huo et al., 2017). LTA is reviewing for bringing the
deadline forward in end-2020, which will prohibit the use of PMD without the safety
certification in the context of the recent fire incident in Singapore.
Until 31 December 2020, the rides of non-certified of UL2272 PMDs are allowed on
the public paths but from the beginning of 2020, the non-certified PMDs will not be allowed
for the rides to ride. However, LTA said about the fir accident of the non-Ul2272 certified
mobile device, which was blast during charging. The review of the deadline is bringing
forward for the PMD users by LTA. For getting the confirmation of the UL2272 certification,
the PMD need to be passed in some tests. These tests will improve the safety against the
electric hazards and fire significantly (Jeevarajan, 2018). LTA has fixed a starting deadline of
the end-2022 after taking the feedback from the public including the retailers and users. LTA
said that they always encourage the users for switching the safety as early as possible and

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wants the users to encourage the others regarding this matter. Expert of transport
infrastructure Dr. Raymond Ong from National University of Singapore stated that the
deadline of the review is very essential for the safety reason and the users will be given time
to transforming their non-certified device into UL2272 certified devices (Bisenius, 2016).
This certification of UL2272 will cover the mechanical and electrical component of the
mobility device. It will minimize the accidents such as fire hazards.
This can be analyzed from the article that the Non-certified devices are more likely to
create any fire hazards or cause any accident any time. This can be said in the context of
recent fire hazards of a mobility device in Singapore. The consumers need to buy any
mobility device from any reputed source and check the certification of UL2272 (Vayssier,
2016). The consumers need to know about some aspects of the use of mobility devices as per
the suggestions of LTA such as they should not tamper the electrical components of the
device or they should not overcharge the batteries of the device. Most importantly, the
certification of UL2272 will provide the consumer confidence and peace of mind.
References
Bisenius, B. (2016). Fighting Fire with...[Product Safety Perspectives]. IEEE Consumer
Electronics Magazine, 6(1), 134-136.
Huo, H., Xing, Y., Pecht, M., Züger, B. J., Khare, N., & Vezzini, A. (2017). Safety
requirements for transportation of lithium batteries. Energies, 10(6), 793.
Jeevarajan, J. A. (2018). MANAGING OF RISK BY MANUFACTURERS OF
CONSUMER EQUIPMENT. Electrochemical Power Sources: Fundamentals,
Systems, and Applications: Li-Battery Safety, 349.
Vayssier, G. (2016). Accident management under extreme events. Energija, 65(3-4), 0-0.

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Week 3: Deontology Theory
US driver who hurt Singaporean in hit-and-run escapes jail
Section: Social
Link: https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/us-driver-who-hurt-singaporean-hit-and-run-
escapes-jail
Case Study:
This article discusses about the hit-and-run case of a US driver and a Singaporean
student. This article is based on the Deontology Theory of ethics. This ethics focuses on
binding the rules and any person’s obligation and the duty towards country, church, family
etc. (Mallia, 2015). The motive of any person is the focus of this ethics. This article is based
on this situation of duty based or deontology of any person. The Singaporean student was
lying unconsciously on the road. The emergency responder team went there for treating her.
Instead of helping the Singaporean student, the US driver drove away after knocking her
down. The US driver was Hannah Christensen, who is 20 years old was provided discharge
on a condition last month. The accident was occurred on the North campus of University of
Buffalo in New York on 1st November. A student of that university named Christensen tried
to stop her car but after seeing the emergency team, she drove away. After two weeks, the
police caught Hannah. She co-operated and admitted her offence by giving statement.
Ms. Renuka Ramanandhan, who was a major in accounting, spent many weeks in the
hospital. She has suffered from traumatic brain injury and her pelvis and skull was fractured.
After her returning in school, the News Spectrum was reported.
On last week, Supreme Court of New York provided Hannah a discharge on condition
and the court ordered Hannah to complete a community service of 150 hours. The judge

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Christopher Burns stated that jail will not be appropriate for Hannah as she as confessed her
guilt and regretted later and she tried to rectify and went to Renuka. He added that Human
nature is fixed and the panic is also fixed. It never excuses the occurrence but it can explain
it. This can be analyzed from the article is that there are some rules binding for each person,
which is based on the typical deontology ethics. It is very important to understand the motive
and the impacts on others (Hopkins, & Chivers, 2019). The transcendent principles are
applied to all people. Without reporting, Hannah left the scene that made her to stay in the
prison for four years. Therefore, every person needs to treat another person with respect and
dignity as they have rights. The key concept of this is obligations of objectives or duties or
responsibilities towards the society (Wee & Rietveld, 2013). In any ethical situation is needed
to identify the duty of the person and make proper decision.
References
Hopkins, M., & Chivers, S. (2019). Theorizing hit-and-run: A study of driver decision-
making processes after a road traffic collision. Criminology & Criminal
Justice, 19(1), 45-61.
Mallia, P. (2015). Towards an ethical theory in disaster situations. Medicine, Health Care and
Philosophy, 18(1), 3-11.
van Wee, B., & Rietveld, P. (2013). Using value of statistical life for the ex ante evaluation of
transport policy options: a discussion based on ethical theory. Transportation, 40(2),
295-314.

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Week 4: Utilitarianism Theory
The Abortion Debate Is Stuck. Are Artificial Wombs the Answer?
Section: Technology
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/opinion/sunday/abortion-technology-debate.html
Case study:
This article discusses about the Artificial Wombs, which is an artificial technology on
which experiments are being done. This case is underlying in the Utilitarianism Theory of
ethics. It is defined as the ethical theory that focuses on the consequences and the result for
the common people. The fight is being going by interlocking the choice of life and values.
Every woman has the right to claim the right of life by fetus (Coleman, 2017). Artificial
womb technology has shown many success in the experiment on fetus of sheep. In the early
stage of pregnancy, the fetus of lamb is removed and placed the fetus in the uterine
environment made of synthetic. From the environment, the fetus receives fluids and nutrients
and keep develops. Artificial wombs for the human being are far in future and many ethical
issues are there to consider (Abecassis, 2016). There is technology to raise question for
human abortion debate. In the Bioethics journal issue, two philosophers argued about the
woman’s right for removing the fetus from the body. Women do not have right for killing it.
This argument goes on with the pro-choice philosopher. He also stated that woman has right
for not carrying the fetus in her body for nine months but she does not have the right to kill it
permanently (Cohen, 2017). This argument added some points to the disjunction in the debate
of abortion. The artificial wombs have the appeal, which is far beyond of the debate of
abortion. This can make revolution in the premature birth. The WHO known as World Health

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Organization has said that the cause of death mostly occurs among the children, who are
under 5.
There can be many challenges of this technology. Artificial births and transplants of
the fetus of a human can be much expensive to afford. It will be abortion procedure of 15
minutes typically but it will cost near about $500, which is very expensive for the common
people. Form this case study; this can be analyzed that the abortion debate can be resolved
soon. For now, it is not legally approved. However, as the philosophical and practical one,
synthetic wombs can provide a debate for the both ide to move forward with it. The main
question is whether the society is interested to accept this and its benefits, which can resolve
many immutable problems of human. This will be a big concern in the society regarding this
artificial wombs and its acceptance.
References
Abecassis, M. (2016). Artificial wombs: the third era of human reproduction and the likely
impact on French and US law. Hastings Women's LJ, 27, 3.
Cohen, I. G. (2017). Artificial Wombs and Abortion Rights. Hastings Center Report, 47(4),
inside-back.
Coleman, S. (2017). The ethics of artificial uteruses: Implications for reproduction and
abortion. Routledge.

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Week 5: Rights Theory
First human-monkey chimera raises concern among scientists
Section: Science
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/03/first-human-monkey-chimera-
raises-concern-among-scientists
Case Study:
This article discusses about the chimera of human-animal, which has raised a big
concern among the scientists. This article is based on the right theory of ethics, which talks
about the rights of animals and human beings. The issues of animal-human chimera have
created an ethical debate that is emerging among the scientists. The scientists have created an
embryo of monkey, which contains human cells (Masaki et al., 2015). Chimera is the
organism that is created with two or more individual living cells from different species.
Chimera has the potential for addressing the deficiency of transplant of human organ or
rejection of any organ. Scientist said that human organ could be matched that is growing
inside the animals. The process is to take the human cell of the adult body and placed them
into the animal body, which creates stem cell. Stem cells are then introduced to the embryo of
other animal. However, it is said by Alejandro De Los Angles that chimeras is developed for
exploring the improvement of any human cell or any organ. The making of chimera can tell
the society about the chimera of human-pig and theirs affects human organ transplant. It can
be learned about the stem cell that can be used for enhancing the chimerism level of human
inside the pig.
Chimeras of sheep-human and pig-human can be attractive part of science because the
organs of human body exactly match with organs of sheep and pig. The organ size is perfect

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for the organ transplant of human. After creating the chimera of human-mouse by the
Japanese Prof Hiromitsu Nakauchi, it came to news about the creation of monkey-human
chimera. For the disease, the primate models are not appropriate for making the chimera of
human-monkey. This can provide better treatment of the brain disease (De Los Angeles et al.,
2018). It is stated that near about 150 experiments have failed in last 20 years. This can be
happened lack of model of disease. One possible approach can be done for the brain disease
with the embryo of money, which can be altered genetically by injecting in the human stem
cells that is a part of brain (Trujillo & Engel-Glatter, 2015). This can be analyzed from this
case study, that there are many concern raised about his chimera creation. New boundaries of
science are being pushed day bay day. This concern is based on the right ethics theory, which
talks about the right of human and animal. If this scientific experiment comes to the use then
it can take a while.
References
De Los Angeles, A., Hyun, I., Latham, S. R., Elsworth, J. D., & Redmond Jr, D. E. (2018).
Human–Monkey Chimeras for Modeling Human Disease: Opportunities and
Challenges. Stem cells and development, 27(23), 1599-1604.
Masaki, H., Kato-Itoh, M., Umino, A., Sato, H., Hamanaka, S., Kobayashi, T., ... &
Nakauchi, H. (2015). Interspecific in vitro assay for the chimera-forming ability of
human pluripotent stem cells. Development, 142(18), 3222-3230.
Trujillo, L. Y. C., & Engel-Glatter, S. (2015). Human–animal chimera: a neuro driven
discussion? Comparison of three leading European research countries. Science and
engineering ethics, 21(3), 595-617.