By a lie, a man... annihilates his dignity as a man.

Immanuel Kant In this philosophical paper, we were presented with this dilemma to deal with: the CEO of a local car manufacturing company must choose whether to impede the mass-production of their newly manufactured car due to defects that could cause peoples deaths, or to continue with production and just pay for the necessary expenses (burial and hospitalization of victims, insurance, legal fees, etc.). A study shows that it is cheaper to continue with the production. In this situation, we claim that the CEO of this company should decide to redesign the cars, even though it would cost the company large amounts of money for the following reasons: it is the companys moral duty and obligation to ensure the consumers welfare, life is more valuable than money under any circumstance and that it is his duty to guarantee that the companys good name is not tainted and discredited. First, a consumers safety and security must be a companys top priority. Also, we must criticize the statement in this dilemma that the product passed the safety standards of the law, since it clearly states here that: It is the policy of the State to protect the interests of the consumer, promote his general welfare and to establish standards of conduct for business and industry. Towards this end, the State shall implement measures to achieve the following objectives:1 (a) protection against hazards to health and safety; (b) protection against deceptive, unfair and unconscionable sales acts and practices; 1 It shall be the duty of the State:
(A)

to develop and provide safety and quality standards for consumer products, including performance or use-oriented standards, codes of practice and methods of tests; (b) to assist the consumer in evaluating the quality, including safety, performance and comparative utility of consumer products; (c) to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury associated with consumer products; (d) to undertake research on quality improvement of products and investigation into causes and prevention of product related deaths, illness and injuries; (e) to assure the public of the consistency of standardized products.2

Taken from the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, RA 7394 The Consumer Act of the Philippines, Article 2, Declaration of Basic Policy (a-b) 2 Taken from the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, RA 7394 The Consumer Act of the Philippines, Chapter 1: Consumer Product Quality and Safety, Article 5, Declaration of Policy

Life is more precious than money. Consumer safety should be the first priority of every company.3 Second, although not certain that the accidents will result in explosions that could lead to loss of lives, as a rational being, we can universalize that we must not risk any persons life for the intention of gaining or in this case, saving, money. This conforms to Immanuel Kants Formulation of Categorical Imperative on Duty Ethics. On the other hand, if ever they proceed with the mass-production of this car, it will go against Kants belief that we cannot treat mankind as a means. In the case of this dilemma, using the consumers as a means for the companys selfish intents to save money, which is highly immoral according to Kant. In attest to this, when we conducted a survey concerning this problem, eight out of ten correspondents agree with us on the side that the goodwill of the CEO should prevail. He should redesign the car for the greater good of the masses. The welfare of the consumers or ones immediate market must be ones topmost consideration [sic], since quality and safety must come first to cater to [the] consumers good [sic].4 Third, if ever car explosions happen because of the defects and it is found out under investigation that the company had full knowledge of the flaws in the cars design, they would be greatly compromised and it would affect the companys credibility. As the CEO, it is part of his responsibility to assure that the companys name retains its good reputation. Although he is also obliged to ensure that the company gains profits, it is not stated in the argument that if they remodel their product, they would go bankrupt. So we believe that it is safe to assume that the companys future would not be severely affected by allotting money to the remodeling of their defective cars. It is also important that we not neglect the fact that accidents in the Philippines are inevitable since our traffic system is usually flawed. So, as a local car manufacturing company, they should always put this factor into consideration.
2

Gutierrez, Dianne B. Jimenez, Jacinth Ramone D. Suazo, Gil M. D-5R / Spinoza

3 4

Adapted from a correspondent Quoted from anonymous correspondent