Did Thurston act ethically in suggesting they sacrifice one of the survivors? Explain thoroughly
On a flight to Bermuda, passing through the famous “Triangle”, a private aircraft carrying the pilot, co-pilot, and five passengers crashes into a small uncharted island. Remarkably, there were five survivors from this crash: Thurston (a 60-year-old wealthy businessman), Ginger (a 30-year-old female movie star), Professor (a 43-year-old male Science Professor), and Mary Ann (a 28-year-old farm girl), along with Gilligan (the 26-year-old co-pilot). Two passengers perished in the original crash, Thurston’s wife, who he affectionately called “Lovey” and the pilot, Skipper. After burying the deceased on the island, the parties began to search for food, water, and shelter. Unfortunately, the island was relatively barren and had no immediate food source. The aircraft was destroyed from the fire that resulted following the crash and all the provisions on the craft were gone. Originally, Gilligan assured the stranded that “a rescue plane would come.” Sadly, after 21 days without food, and relatively little water, the parties began to question their plight.
The group perceived Professor to be the “brains” of the group, and felt that both Thurston and Ginger had clearly valuable leadership skills. Thurston approached Professor and Ginger and suggested that they draw lots to decide whether they would sacrifice either Gilligan or Mary Ann for the “greater good” of the group so the others could feed off the body to survive. Professor found the suggestion logical, but suggested that the “right” thing to do would be to get the entire group to agree before taking any action. Ginger was immediately morally opposed to the suggestion of killing any one and refused. The idea was abandoned. Ginger informed Mary Ann of the suggestion and she vehemently stated that she could not believe that Thurston could even consider eating another person because it was “clearly wrong”. Ironically, the next day, Gilligan slipped and fell, through no fault but his own and died. All of the remaining survivors immediately began to feast on the corpse for their own survival.
Assuming there is a law which prohibits cannibalism under any circumstance, answer the following questions using principles of Ethics you have studied in this class and other business classes. Simply telling me whether is was right or wrong is not enough. You should thoroughly discuss your answer using the principles from Chapter 2, the in class discussions AND resources you’ve learned in other classes about ethics (number your responses accordingly):
a) Did Thurston act ethically in suggesting they sacrifice one of the survivors? Explain thoroughly.
b) Did Professor act ethically in suggesting they must have group agreement before proceeding with the sacrifice? Explain thoroughly.
c) Did Ginger act ethically in refusing to participate in the killing? Explain thoroughly.
d) Did Mary Ann act ethically in feeding on Gilligan’s body with the others? Explain thoroughly.
