Apply Respect for Persons theory to the case. How would a respect for persons theorist evaluate the actions of the US authorities? Your answer should take into account the negative and positive obligations/rights of all the relevant parties (300 words)

During analysis, make reasonable assumptions and approximations where you lack quantifiable information (do not research anything). You do not need to formulate a rule for testing, your analysis should provide an answer to the following question:

You analyses should justify an answer to the question:

Is it morally permissible for the US government to continue the current practice of purchasing and sending supplies or (alternative) or is it morally obligated to change the practice to buying them locally?

Article:

When Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, the United States Agency for International Development swung into action: A ship filled with rice positioned in Sri Lanka was sent powering toward the devastated island nation as 55 tons of high-energy biscuits were airlifted from Miami. As much as $100 million more in food aid, the bulk of it from the United States, will still be needed in the coming months for the estimated 2.5 million people displaced by the storm.

But aid workers and antipoverty groups say that current laws governing American food aid could delay or hurt recovery efforts in the Philippines, where the disaster has reignited a long-running argument in the United States the worlds largest food aid donor over how America supplies food in its $1.4 billion international food aid program.

The Obama administration and some lawmakers say the disaster in the Philippines underscores the need to revise the program and give the aid agency the flexibility to buy less expensive food closer to the areas where disasters occur. Right now most American food aid is shipped from the United States, as required by law. The United States remains the only major donor country that continues to send food to humanitarian crisis spots, rather than buy food produced locally. This is just common sense, said Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Buying food locally when it makes sense, like in this case, is cheaper and faster. Mr. Engel said the aid agency should be permitted to use more of its money to buy rice and other foods from Vietnam, Thailand or even areas of the Philippines not affected by the typhoon, rather than shipping it from the other side of the world.

But the proposed program has met stiff resistance from the agriculture and shipping industries that say it will hurt American farmers and cost jobs. Danny Murphy, a Mississippi farmer who is president of the American Soybean Association, said the food aid program was fine the way it was and did not need changing. For the most part it has worked well for 60 years, Mr. Murphy said. It provides jobs in this country, and people get the food they need. Why change that?

Many members of Congress, particularly those from farm states or states where the shipping industry is a major employer, are also opposed to changes in the program. The American Maritime Congress, an advocacy group for the United States merchant marine, said the United States might have to take out of service as many as 10 American ships used for food shipments and lose hundreds of jobs in the process.

According to the agency, rice sent from the United States would take about 12 weeks to reach the Philippines, while rice bought in Thailand or Vietnam might take about eight weeks. Local rice is available immediately. Furthermore, rice shipped to the Philippines might have a negative effect on the local economy. In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that hit Indonesia and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, American food aid destabilized the local markets for rice and undercut farmers in those countries, further hampering the recovery.