Should Ebbers Have Gone to Jail?

For this assignment, the question examined is; "Should Ebbers have gone to jail?" Bernard Ebbers is the former WorldCom CEO that was convicted on nine counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and making false official statements to securities regulators (Lazarus, 2005). The easy answer for this student is "yes." This paper will expand on why the answer is "yes" and attempt to relate the response to normative ethics considerations. To begin, let's examine some basic terminology that will be used to support the case response.

Normative ethics focuses on the rightness and wrongness of actions. Normative ethics can be categorized as either utilitarian or deontological. Utilitarian ethics means the action is right if it leads to the most value or good for the greatest number on people. Deontological ethics means that decisions are made based on an individual's rights or the moral nature of the action itself.

An example of the utilitarian theory would be to hand out candy on Halloween because it creates happiness for all the neighborhood children who enjoy sweets. To not hand out candy, would be to go against the grain of a time honored tradition and cause unhappiness among the children.

Using the same situation of handing out candy, a deontological theory could flow like this: the resident of a home in the neighborhood chooses not to hand out candy at Halloween. Is that ethical? The deontological point-of-view supports not handing out candy because the person has that right. There is no legal requirement to hand out candy. Individuals do so based on their morals. Deontological supporters may see it as their duty not to cause tooth decay and they have a right not to cause the youth in the neighborhood any problems with the dentists.

After examining both ethical theories, this student definitely sees where deontological theorists really have to do some soul searching. If this theory is all about one's right to do something, what if their right interferes with your morals? Take the whole burning flag thing--this has to be a deontological theorists prime example. This theory supports a person's right to burn Old Glory, even if others see it as unethical--definitely a tough one to swallow. Now that terms have been covered, the next point is to identify which ethical theory ties into the Ebbers question.

To send Ebbers to jail is a utilitarian theory decision because it focuses on the greatest value for the greatest number of people over the long term. The case article we read speaks to Enron and other organizations whose CEOs have proven themselves corrupt just like Ebbers. To not prosecute these folks and hold them accountable is a poor decision. It would give them a proverbial license to continue to commit fraud. The employees and customers (a.k.a victims) of these businesses would continue to suffer. Do these people have a right to lie? Do they