As a company, we have a responsibility to our customers as well as to ourselves as a company. It has been found that our product is being used in methods of sex selection in countries such as India and China. In these countries, the benefits of having a male child outweigh that of a female. Once the sex is determined, through ultrasound, the baby is often aborted if the fetus is found to be a female. This practice is not the intended purpose of our product, however, in today's world sex selection by way of ultrasound is a real issue. .
The firm needs to consider the future, and one aspect of this future is expansion. The two most likely markets for the company are the very two that would cause the most controversy, India and China. They are the markets with the most room for growth as well as with the highest increase in population. Our company deals directly with handling and ensuring the health of an increasing population. However, expanding into these areas can have some adverse effects as well. Knowing that the countries have a heightened sex selection rate, and knowing that our products could play a role in increasing these statistics, can we morally expand into these countries? Another factor we need to consider is if we expand into these countries will we have activist groups and organization fighting against us? These organizations can gain power and ultimately go up against our company. In the long term there are serious considerations that need to be made before expansion.
Since the practice of sex selection directly deals with a service that our product provides, we are ethically obligated to respond to the problem. ATL has a responsibility to not only our direct customers, but all those who are affected by ultrasound and its technology. Ultrasound is a wonderful technological advance that allows for many wonderful things to be done. Unfortunately, there are some unethical things being done with our product, and therefore it concerns our company.
