Business Law with UCC Applications Chapter 1 Case Analysis

1. One of the latest fads among many young people (and a few not so young people) involves the use of something referred to as the e-cigarette. E-cigarettes are not real cigarettes because they do not burn tobacco and thus do not release tar and other toxic chemicals, or so the argument goes. The device operates on a battery that vaporizes nicotine and permits the smoker to breathe Page 27in the nicotine-laced vapor, just as if it were smoke from a real cigarette. In reaction to all of this, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to enter the e-cigarette market with regulations that will forbid sales to minors, require photo identification for all sales, eliminate vending machine sales (except in facilities limited to adults), list ingredients, and include health-related warnings on all labels.

1.Using the negative rights theory, defend the FDAs new rules.

2.Using utilitarianism, construct an argument that opposes the new rules.

3.Now use rational ethics to construct an argument that goes even further by opposing the manufacture and sale of all e-cigarettes.

4.Explain each argument and determine which of the three positions you prefer.

5.Explain that preference.

[See: Wise Controls on E-Cigarettes, The New York Times, April 26, 2014, p. A-18.]