Ethical Issuses of Tobacco Companies in The Insider

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The movie The Insider literally provides a seeing glass perspective into the summation of ethical issues in businesses that directly affects the consumers physical and psychological health and the alleged methods that the tobacco company would resort to in order to safe guard itself from litigation and from disclosing information that will adversely affect the sale of its sole money making product yet is ultimately crucial to its customers understanding of the contents of the product that they are purchasing and its implications on their personal health.
There are several ethical philosophies in play here regarding the tobacco company and these ethical issues can be explored by analyzing the myriad of interplay of relationships between the characters in the movie and the choices that they make based on certain public and private interests and values. To summarize there is the reluctant protagonist Jeffery Wigand who was the corporate vice president/research chemist of a tobacco company but essentially an employee who was fired yet is still under a non-disclosure clause in a confidentiality agreement with said former company. Secondly the relationship of the company towards its employees regarding its hiring and firing policies, the relationship between the tobacco company with its consumers and the evident issue of justice versus profit making in the tobacco business.
Amongst all the ethical issues stated above, the main ethical issue that would be of the utmost importance in the tobacco industry would be the relationship and obligation between the company and its consumers. In a nutshell a tobacco or cigarette selling company sells its products which according to numerous health and scientific research organizations such as ...

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...ith proper cause. Secondly the ethical breach of conduct by the company itself by threatening Jeff Wigands family and the termination of his severance pay and health benefits. And lastly the alleged intimidation by the tobacco company which includes email threats, psychological intimidation and the disclosing of Jeff Wigand’s private life to the media to defame his character and subsequently make his sworn deposition unreliable.
In conclusion, ethics has no place in the tobacco business and the rights and obligations that usually would apply for any other company would not apply to a tobacco company as the right to trade secrecy, information privacy or the right to get a customer to buy its products is nullified by the fact the tobacco industry itself is absolutely built to sell products that are scientifically proven to be carcinogenic and harmful to its users.

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