Professional Ethics & Human Values

On  December  3,  1984,  Union  Carbide’s  pesticide-manufacturing  plant  in  Bhopal,  India leaked 40 tons of the deadly gas, methyl isocyanate into a sleeping, impoverished community – killing 2,500 within a few days, 10000 permanently disabled and injuring 100,000 people. Ten years later, it increased to 4000 to 7000 deaths and injuries to 600,000. Risks taken: •  Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to more than 75% capacity as against Union Carbide’s spec. that it should never be more than 60% full. •    The  company’s  West  Virginia  plant  was  controlling  the  safety  systems  and  detected leakages thro’ computers but the Bhopal plant only used manual labour for control and leak detection. •    The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly concentrated, burns parts of body with which it comes into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying lungs. Causal Factors: •    Three protective systems out of service •    Plant was understaffed due to costs. •    Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic material. •    The accident occurred in the early morning. •     Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly built) town located very close to the plant fence. Workers made the following attempts to save the plant: •     They tried to turn on the plant refrigeration system to cool down the environment and slow the reaction. (The refrigeration system had been drained of coolant weeks before and never refilled — it cost too much.) •     They tried to route expanding gases to a neighboring tank. (The tank’s pressure gauge was broken and indicated the tank was full when it was really empty.) •     They tried to purge the gases through a scrubber. (The scrubber was designed for flow rates, temperatures  and  pressures  that were a  fraction  of what was by this time escaping from the tank. The scrubber was as a result ineffective.) •     They tried to route the gases through a flare tower — to burn them away. (The supply line to the flare tower was broken and hadn’t been replaced.) •     They tried to spray water on the gases and have them settle to the ground — by this time the chemical reaction was nearly completed. (The gases were escaping at a point 120 feet above ground; the hoses were designed to shoot water up to 100 feet into the air.) In just 2 hours the chemicals escaped to form a deadly cloud over hundreds of thousands of people incl. poor migrant labourers who stayed close to the plant.

A patentee gets the exclusive monopoly right against the public at large to use, sell or manufacture his patented device. A patentee can enforce his monopoly right against any infringement in the court of law for suitable damages or profit of account. The Government ensures full disclosure of the invention to the public for exchange…

Encourages an inventor to disclose his invention Encourages R & D activities as the industries can make use of the technology, & avoids redundant research Provides reasonable assurance for commercialization. Provides an inducement to invest capital in the new lines of production and thus, help for technical development and upgradation. One may get a very…

The right to original literary and artistic works •    Literary, written material •    Dramatic, musical or artistic works •    Films and audio-visual materials •    Sound recordings •    Computer Programmes/software •    SOME databases Example: Picasso’s Guernica, Microsoft code, Lord of the Rings

Trade Mark is a name or symbol adopted for identifying goods     Public can identify from the Trade Mark from whom the product is emanating     Trade Marks protection is given for an industrial product by the Government Examples: Channel No.5’s smell, Jacque Villeneuve’s face!

 Meant for beautifying an industrial product to attract the consumer public     Shaping, Configuration or Ornamentation of a vendible Industrial product     Exclusive ‘Design Rights’ to the originator for a limited term     Patents & design embrace the production stage of an industrial activit y

1.   Derived from the Latin word ‘LITTERAE PATENTES’ which means ‘Open Letters’ or ‘Open Documents’ to confer rights and privileges. 2.   A contract between an Inventor and the Government 3.   An exclusive privilege monopoly right granted by the Government to the Inventor 4.   Invention may be of an Industrial product or process of manufacture 5.   Invention should be new, non-obvious,…

Intellectual Property is a product of the human intellect that has commercial value Many of the rights of the ownership common to real and personal property are also common to Intellectual Property Intellectual Property can be bought, sold, and licensed Similarly it can be protected against theft and infringement by others Patent, Design &   Trademark …

–    Discrimination generally means preference on the grounds of sex, race, skin color, age or religious outlook. –    In everyday speech, it has come to mean morally unjustified treatment of people on arbitrary or irrelevant grounds. –  Therefore to call something ‘Discrimination” is to condemn it.  –  But when the question of justification arises, we will call it ‘Preferential Treatment’.

Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being an employee. Employee rights are: There should be no discrimination against an employee for criticizing ethical, moral or legal policies and practices of the organization. The  organization  will not also  discriminate  against  an employee  for  engaging  in outside activities  or for…