Chapter 7 Self Quiz

. Which element of whistle-blowing is absent from the following case: An engineer knows that his company is breaking the law by periodically allowing untreated wastewater with a low pH into the sewer, creating a risk of killing the bacteria at the municipal wastewater treatment plant. The engineer sabotages the company's discharge creating a spill that draws the attention of the authorities and then explains to them what the company has been doing.

Merely passes information along to authorities

Justifiably believes wrongdoing has occurred

Intention to end wrongdoing (not merely revenge)

Serious wrongdoing

. According to DeGeorge's harm-preventing view, whistle-blowing which of the following conditions is not necessary for whistle-blowing to be morally permissible?

A practice or product does or will cause serious harm to individuals or society at large.

The charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors.

No appropriate action has been taken to remedy the wrongdoing.

There is documentation of the potentially harmful practice or defect.

. The complicity-avoiding view takes you to be obliged to blow the whistle if and only if (l) what you will reveal derives from your work for an organization; (2) you are a voluntary member of that organization; (3) you believe that the organization, though legitimate, is engaged in serious moral wrongdoing; and (4) you believe that your work for that organization will contribute (more or less directly) to the wrong if (but not only if) you do not publicly reveal what you know and your beliefs are true and justified. What sort of case calls the necessity of these criteria in question?

A case where the wrongdoing is in another part of the organization or above you

A case where the wrongdoing is illegal

A case where you have already participated in the wrongdoing yourself

A case where your company is about to be bought by another

. In the BER case, Engineer A discovered that Engineer A's company, SPQ, was cheating a vendor by using software in violation of agreement. Upon learning of this wrongdoing, Engineer A responded by reporting SPQ on a confidential hotline. BER determined this act of whistle-blowing to be unethical. All of the following considerations supported their conclusion except

there was no immediate threat to the public.

Engineer A was disloyal.

Engineer A did not properly calculate the utility.

Engineer A did not notify SPQ to give them a chance to fix the problem.

. All the following are true of Edward Snowden's whistle-blowing on the NSA except

Snowden discovered as a private contractor that the NSA was monitoring millions of private phone calls of US citizens.

The NSA admitted much of Snowden's allegations were true, and Congress responded with new legislation to restrict the NSA's monitoring activity.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that Snowden had performed a public service.

Snowden received a presidential pardon for his whistle-blowing.

. According to the complicity avoiding view about whistle-blowing, a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for morally permissible instances of whistle-blowing is that

you believe that the organization, though legitimate, is engaged in serious moral wrongdoing.

there is documentation of the potentially harmful practice or defect.

a practice or product does or will cause serious harm to individuals or society at large.

the charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors.

. According to Richard T. DeGeorge's harm-preventing view, whistle-blowing is morally permissible ifa practice or productdoes or will cause serious harm to individuals or society at large,

the charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors, and no appropriate action has been taken to remedy the wrongdoing.

the charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors, and there is documentation of the potentially harmful practice or defect.

the charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors, and there is good reason to believe public disclosure will avoid the present or prevent similar future wrongdoing.

and the charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors.

. Roger Boisjoly is best known for having

blown the whistle before the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which he did by contacting the press.

blown the whistle before the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, which he did by contacting the executive director of NASA.

raised serious concerns about the O-ring the months before the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

None of the above

. Richard T. DeGeorge defends a harm-preventing view about whistle-blowing. In his view, it is permissible to blow the whistle just in case (1) a practice or product does or will cause serious harm to individuals or society at large; (2) the charge of wrongdoing has been brought to the attention of immediate superiors; and (3) no appropriate action has been taken to remedy the wrongdoing. Which ethical theory offers the best support of this account of whistle-blowing?

Utilitarianism

Ethical egoism

Kantian duty ethics

Virtue ethics

None of the above

. The fact that whistle-blowers are generally deeply involved in the activity they reveal is thought by some theorists to show that

prevention of harm is the salient feature of whistle-blowing.

whistle-blowing always involves breaking one's word to one's employee.

avoiding complicity is the most morally relevant aspect of whistle-blowing.

None of the above

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