 |
FORD PLANT CASE STUDY
|
Mother
As a mother of a two-year old daughter, planning to conceive another child soon, you are especially concerned about risks to children and about developmental effects, especially those that may not yet be known. Based on your experience, you have become extraordinarily skeptical of "scientific" claims about safety. For example, when your aunt was pregnant in the 1960s, she took thalidomide, an approved, supposedly "safe" tranquilizer that left your cousin with several birth defects, including grossly atrophied arms. These contribute to a generally "uncompromising" concern for the welfare of your childrena and future generation.
You may consider that you are deeply committed to health and environmental issues. You eat only organically grown foods. You wear only clothes with natural fibers. You use public transport (by choice, not by necessity): yes, it is a nuisance on occasions, but wouldn't the system be more effective if everyone used it?
You would say that Ford owes you a safe environment. At the same time, however, you see no responsibility to Ford (or to its employees).
Some particular questions that you need to resolve:
- How do we justify our response to uncertain or unknown risks?
- Also, how should we deal with exceptional cases, or environmental risks that endanger very few? How far should one extend these arguments when other values are at stake? For example, should we insist on costly regulations of all emissions for the sake of only one component of the emissions?
- What regulations on Ford's operations do you see as justified? Should Ford even be allowed to continue to operate locally?
Be sure to read the Background carefully for information that is relevant to these questions and your position.
Remember that the aim in adopting a stakeholder's perspective is not to "act out" someone else's role or to make decisions according to some stereotyped view of how another person "should" act. Rather, you should focus on the stakeholder's concerns and consider how YOU would act in a similar situtation.