• What would you suggest to be done and which principles are important to you in this decision?
• How would you think about the greatest good in this case?
• As a leader what are your duties and who are the stakeholders in this case? What are the long term ramifications of your decision?
• Would you feel comfortable if your decision, including your name was published on the front page of the news paper?

Transcribed Image Text:

Case: Corneas in the Congo Joanne B. Ciulla You are the head of a small aid agency in the Congo. The mission of your agency is to provide health services for refugees who have fled the carious civil wars in the region. In recent years you have worked with a number of nongovernmental organization agencies, such as C.A.R.E., Doctors Without Borders, and the Christian Children's Fund. Your agency focuses on giving intensice help to small communities. You are now working in a camp of fifty people. Because of a peculiar parasite in the water that destroys the cornea of the eye, ten people in the camp have gone blind; half of them are children. Except for their inability to see, their health is reasonably good, given the conditions of the camp. You contact Doctors Without Borders and they tell you that they will have tuco ophthalmologists in the area next week, but that the only thing they can do for the people who have gone blind is to give them cornea transplants. They could do the operations, but they said it was impossible to get corneas for transplant in Africa. A few days later, the area director of Doctors Without Borders calls and tells you that a Chinese aid agency has twenty corneas and would be willing to exchange them for a truck and ten cases of medical supplies. This strikes you as odd so you ask, "Where did they get the corneas?" She then tells you that the corneas were donated to the Chinese aid agency by a wealthy Hong Kong businessman. He bought them from a middle man who buys body parts for transplant from prisons. The prisons carefully execute criminals and then take out licers and corneas for resale. Evidently, corrupt prison wardens make huge profits from this practice. This makes them cery liberal with executions, especially of political prisoners. You tell the director that the origin of these Chinese corneas makes you uncomfortable. The director says, "We have no problem with using them. If you don't want them, I'll give them to someone else. There are too many people in need here." She says. "You have one day to decide. Tomorrow I have to radio the plane in Kinshasa and tell it where to go next." Case: Corneas in the Congo Joanne B. Ciulla You are the head of a small aid agency in the Congo. The mission of your agency is to provide health services for refugees who have fled the carious civil wars in the region. In recent years you have worked with a number of nongovernmental organization agencies, such as C.A.R.E., Doctors Without Borders, and the Christian Children's Fund. Your agency focuses on giving intensice help to small communities. You are now working in a camp of fifty people. Because of a peculiar parasite in the water that destroys the cornea of the eye, ten people in the camp have gone blind; half of them are children. Except for their inability to see, their health is reasonably good, given the conditions of the camp. You contact Doctors Without Borders and they tell you that they will have tuco ophthalmologists in the area next week, but that the only thing they can do for the people who have gone blind is to give them cornea transplants. They could do the operations, but they said it was impossible to get corneas for transplant in Africa. A few days later, the area director of Doctors Without Borders calls and tells you that a Chinese aid agency has twenty corneas and would be willing to exchange them for a truck and ten cases of medical supplies. This strikes you as odd so you ask, "Where did they get the corneas?" She then tells you that the corneas were donated to the Chinese aid agency by a wealthy Hong Kong businessman. He bought them from a middle man who buys body parts for transplant from prisons. The prisons carefully execute criminals and then take out licers and corneas for resale. Evidently, corrupt prison wardens make huge profits from this practice. This makes them cery liberal with executions, especially of political prisoners. You tell the director that the origin of these Chinese corneas makes you uncomfortable. The director says, "We have no problem with using them. If you don't want them, I'll give them to someone else. There are too many people in need here." She says. "You have one day to decide. Tomorrow I have to radio the plane in Kinshasa and tell it where to go next."

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The case youve presented is a complex ethical dilemma involving issues of providing medical aid in a resourcescarce environment the source of potentially lifesaving medical supplies and the ethical im... View the full answer