If it is in good morals for Lauren to report David to the police is the central ethical

issue to be resolved because Lauren must choose if she should of broke the Librarians code of

ethics and kept David’s name or if she should have stuck to the code and not kept his name

respecting his privacy. This comes down to her Virtue Ethics and if she feels like

Utilitarianism is a good approach or not in this situation.

Research

Find at least three appropriate sources and summarize their relevance to the central ethical

issue.

1. “It’s not just Flint. Lead taints water across the U.S., EPA records show”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/17/its-not-just-flint-

lead-taints-water-across-the-u-s-the-epa-says/?utm_term=.fa756722355d

This article shows that 350 school and daycares failed the lead tests a total of 470

times over the span of 3 years across the United States. Allowing the percent of kids who

have high lead poisoning under the age of six years old to skyrocket. In Pennsylvania alone

8.5% of the population have dangerous levels of lead poisoning all from the water. If we

can’t drink water what can we have? It is not a funny coincidence that the suburbs have

better water than the poor ghetto areas of these cities too. This allows the wealthy to be

healthy and everyone below the poverty level to be taken advantage of.

2. “Protecting Seattle’s waterways”

Seattle is proud beyond of their clean, clear, drinkable water. They take every safety

precaution possible to make sure that the water is drinkable, clean, tastes, and smells good!

Seattle had an issue with the major rainfall that they get each year. Their streets flood and the

sewer system in Seattle has one path for both the street’s run off and the septic track allowing

it to be overfilled and run off into Lake Washington. To fix this problem they currently have

two large tanks under the city for the excess water to empty out into when they flood just so it
avoids going into Lake Washington. This allows them to keep pollution down and allows

them to keep their water fresh and drinkable.

3. “Rezpect our water”

The Youth of Standing Rock are saying enough is enough and doing all they can to

protect the Indian reserve and the water that they have. The youth and elders of Standing

Rock know how bad an oil pipeline can be with the chance of it bursting all over their reserve

and contaminating their water source. All they want is to “Protect our water and our future”.

Standing rock has had a history with the Indian tribes where they are attempting to build a

pipe line is where most of their elders were buried.

III. Analysis

Stakeholders Options

Take David’s Respect Report David to Call the police

name down and David’s privacy her advisor while David
his ID number no matter what was still at the
library
Lauren Lauren takes the Lauren ignores Lauren gets Lauren takes the
risk of violating her ‘gut feeling’ taken out of the chance of
the Library’s by waiting to situation and her offending David
Code of Ethics see if David is a advisor makes and wasting the
for a hunch and good guy or not the final call. Officers time
possibly being with a false
fired from her threat.
job.
David David’s risk of David has a The advisor talks David could be
being caught higher chance of to David and he put on a watch
higher than getting away might have the list so he must
without any with posing the chance to give lay low, stop his
witnesses waters and up, to run, or lay plan, or with
possibly going low enough evidence
on to harm he might be
others or other arrested.
water supplies.
The city Have a lead on Has no lead on The threat of There is no
who is poisoning the poisoner of poisoned water warning or
their waters and the water. is non-existent, poisoning what
knows where to it was stopped so ever due to
find their before it began the officers’
 suspect. by calling the actions to
police or the David.
supervisor finds
him non-
threating and
ignores Lauren’s
concern.

Application

1. Consequential Ethical Theory –

1a. Rule Utilitarianism is the action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the

greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the

correctness of the rule of which it is an instance.” So, this means that each case is a different

outcome. Each situation is unique and will not be a ‘cookie cutter’ situation. Utilitarianism

also means that the individual should be willing to sacrifice their own happiness for the

greater happiness of the group. Therefore, if one is selfish they are anything but a

utilitarianism. The ability to work as a group allows others to grow and expand on who they

are and who they want to be.

1b. I believe that Lauren should have ruled Utilitarianism in this situation. If she had

crossed her Code of ethics and written down his name and ID number she could have

prevented the water from being poisoned. If Lauren had called the police or her supervisor to

talk to David she would have been following her Code of Ethics but I believe she did not feel

comfortable doing that. So, being in her situation if she ruled utilitarianism she would have

called the police no matter how uncomfortable she was. By calling the police or the

supervisor she would have prevented an extremely serious situation for her whole town.

Assuming this is current she most likely had a phone and was able to take a quick picture of

his ID giving them anything and everything that the police would need.

2. Non-Consequential Ethical Theory –

 2a. Virtue ethics is person rather than action based: it looks at the virtue or moral

character of the person carrying out an action, rather than at ethical duties and rules, or the

consequences of actions. This allows the person to act based off their morals and what their

gut feeling is. Virtue Ethics allows you to see what type of person the induvial is. This also is

what type of ethical person you are. Depending on what type of person you are depends on

your ethical choice. This explains the diversity in our society as well as the fight or flight part

of our body. Our brain and our make-up is flight or fight and it plays out into our virtue

ethics.

2b. Lauren should have still called the police or her supervisor because of Virtue

ethics. Meaning the person is not action based: it looks at the virtue or moral character of the

person. In the case, it said various times that Lauren was uneasy about the situation she even

though about breaking her code of ethics because her gut feeling was so strong. Lauren

should have taken the steps that she was feeling were correct to prevent a disaster. Lauren

second guessed herself allowing a harmful man begin to act upon his wish to harm others.

Sometimes what right seems wrong but is so right in the long run. So, what choice would be

made in the second that you have to choose?

Decision Making

The wisest, most ethical option would have been to contact someone in higher power

if it was her supervisor or the police. If Lauren had contacted someone of higher power steps

would have been taken to prevent a water poisoning tragedy. Per virtue ethics and

Utilitarianism where you would go off your gut feeling and do the greater good there is no

question as to why she would not contact someone of higher power. Given, Lauren had

multiple options and she took the option of being a bystander even when all the arrows were

point to do something that would change the course of action that David was taking.

Hypothetically if Lauren had ethically chosen to tell someone she would have been able to
change the course of the future by make sure the police was aware of David’s actions that

placed suspicion in Lauren. Once the police were notified she would know that they would do

everything they could to make sure that Wenturn’s water was safe from harm for all of the

city’s people.

Evaluation

Identify arguments against, or objections to, your decision from Part V and defend against

them.

If David had seen Lauren taking down his information what could have prevented

him from fleeing town or laying low for the time being allowing this all to blow over. If

David had stopped and put his ‘mission’ on pause Lauren would have looked parodied as if

she was trying to blame an innocent man for a crime that was made up. Therefore, Lauren not

making a fool of herself and saving the library from that embarrassing explanation was real

Utilitarianism. Also, if David felt so inclined he could most likely sue the public library

system for false actualizations against him.

Lauren has a master’s degree, that takes a lot of schooling and that must come with

some debt. If Lauren had said something or done something to break her Code of Ethics she

could have lost her job. Lauren losing her job could have easily made her fall behind on bills

and who knows maybe become evicted one day and become homeless. Therefore, damaging

her life, self-image, and social skills.

The police’s actions in the past have shown at times to be lazy ones. With who’s to

say that the police would go into depth on the tip and do anything about it? Maybe Lauren not

reporting just saved time and effort for those who are really in trouble. By doing so some

would actually call Lauren a hero.

Reflection
 Doing this CTAP paper has really shown me many things like it is easily in my best

interest not to wait to last minuet on important papers and assignments epically when I need

to show my potential. Morally and ethically many of my every day choices are nowhere near

the best choice on the table. Knowing this, I have been attempting to make better choices

every day, though breaking a 19-year habit is difficult yet, I know it is in my best interest.

The ability to know what is wrong and what is right has truly opened my eyes to being able to

grow and expand my knowledge on many topics. Understanding Lauren’s choices on this

paper allows me to grow and expand on my own choices and ideas when put in a stressful

situation like that if it is at work or in real life. Knowing all parts of the picture allows me to

really consider all of my options and make the wisest choice for all who are a part of the

situation at hand. The future me will keep growing and changing based on my values and

morals based off many ethical standpoints.

Work Cited

"5,300 U.S. Water Systems Are in Violation of Lead Rules." CNN. Cable News Network,

n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/28/us/epa-lead-in-u-s-water-systems/

"Intro to Ethics: Virtue Ethics." BBC. Bbc, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/virtue.shtml

"Virtue Ethics." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/

"Water Quality." Water Quality--Seattle Public Utilities. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

http://www.seattle.gov/Util/MyServices/Water/Water_Quality/index.htm
"What Is the Difference between Rule Utilitarianism and Act Utilitarianism?" Ethics - What

Is the Difference between Rule Utilitarianism and Act Utilitarianism? - Philosophy Stack

Exchange. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.

http://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/10496/what-is-the-difference-between-rule-

utilitarianism-and-act-utilitarianism