Due to the Enron scandal, countless individuals lost life savings because of the unethical decisions made by the executives of the company. In this case, the executives greedily hoarded millions of dollars for their own pensions and retirements funds, while allowing inside information from others to salvage their investments. Meanwhile, these executives bankrupted the company, while all of their average employees quickly lost the security of their long-term jobs, as well as much of their fortunes. The damage did not end there. The average investors" stock and mutual fund portfolios have been permanently marred. This was a devastating revelation in which corrupt accounting practices and selfish upper echelon executives caused the demise of a company that changed the lives and attitudes of the entire country. Because ethics is something that is viewed differently from person to person, many people argue whether a decision is honest and just. Thankfully, there are instructional models for making ethical judgments, such as Gerald F. Cavanagh's "Basic Method," which gives guidelines to follow in order to help people make moral decisions.
Using Cavanagh's "Basic Method," we are able to look at specific cases and decide whether people truly made ethical decisions. In 1981, a medical team was stationed in Trinidad and Tobago for World Health, Inc. The establishment is a "nonprofit American organization whose chief purpose is to provide modern treatment for surgical disorders suffered by residents of developing countries." World Health, Inc. also helped educate and train an operating room staff primarily of locals. The medical team consisted of one American nurse, a student nurse, and a surgeon who were going to conduct surgery on an elderly woman with cataracts free of charge. The surgery was thought to be a routine, simple, and painless operation. However, things did not go as planned.