Introduction

In the article Sourour explains how he is ashamed of a code he wrote when he was twenty-one. While working for a pharmaceutical company he was tasked with targeting a specific drug towards women. The company normally did this with all of their drugs. They would present general information about the drug and if people had prescriptions they could get it. In this instance a quiz was coded that recommended the drug they were trying to push whether it was the actual one they needed or not. Once anyone took the quiz; given the answers that were received they recommended them the drug. The problem with this is shortly afterwards a young girl who was tricked into taking this drug killed herself because of the side effects. Given the situation at hand he is valid in having some type of shame for what he did. In this Case Analysis I will argue that Confucian tool shows us that the code was morally problematic because he knew it was wrong and it caused significant damage, and that Sourour should have done the code differently or not done it at all because it would have been the right thing to do for everybody involved morally.

Code of Ethics

The code of ethics is a set of principles that guide the professional conduct of an individual or organization. It sets out the standards of behavior that are expected of members of the profession, and provides guidance on how to deal with ethical issues that may arise in the course of professional practice. There are several principles to pull from the code of ethics. The first one I will explain is the “contribute to society/humans well being by avoiding harm”. The code of ethics speaks of computing systems being used. When it is in use or being made the idea is for professionals to make sure the product will be used in responsible ways, meet the social needs, and avoid harm. The biggest piece of code is avoiding harm. The second code piece I will explain is “honesty and trustworthiness”. According to the code of ethics professionals need to be as transparent as possible when it comes to their systems or the design function. The third code of ethics is privacy. In today’s time computer systems allow for us to collect data on a level we have never seen before. With the code of ethics it is up to professionals to maintain the privacy of individuals. The last code of ethics I will explain is “honor contracts and responsibilities”. This code of ethics gets a little tricky. Essentially it is the professional’s job to hold up his end of the agreement of the contract. Even if there are times where a professional’s judgment may think he should’t do this he is directed to anyway. That is the part where it is a little unfair. Because regardless who directed he has to take on responsibility for the consequences. Luckily for the code of ethics the professional’s judgment should be the last standing factor in whether or not to honor the contract and responsibility to continue or not. Afterwards no matter what decision is made professionals have to be ready to accept the consequences. 

Looking at the original case if we analyze what Sourour did we can see where he went wrong with the code of ethics. Dealing with the first point he already failed this code of ethics of avoiding harm. He never took into consideration the potential cost and harm of coding that code. As a new hire making decent money his only priority that he had for himself was to make the code cause that was his job regardless of the consequences. The code of ethics he violated was honesty. After Sourour received the news that the code he created for a drug ended up killing a young girl from the side effects. He never mentioned that to his higher reps at the dinner. The other part of honesty is transparency. It was a flawed code. No matter what results people entered into the quiz. The results would recommend the drug they were trying to promote to women. They were not transparent and honest about that. They tricked young women and girls into a drug that may not have even been helpful for them and it cost some their life. The last code is honoring the contract. Which Sourour did honor and perform the task he was meant to do. The only problem is he should have used his judgment to make the final decision. If he knew what the code was doing was unethical he should have decided not to do it. Instead he chalked it up and let it pass. 

Using the Confucian ethical tool we can see directly how Sourour was wrong in this situation. First, Confucianism deals with the belief that order and harmony in society can be achieved by adhering to the principles of filial piety, honesty, sincerity, and others. The main goal of Confucianism is to create a stable and harmonious society. It’s telling us how to best live our lives by staying on a path. That path will not only help you but everyone around. A Confucian would look at this principle as a do unto others as you would want to be treated. Now how can we take this tool and pair it with Sourour’s problem. Sourour has a simple path in life. He is a software developer. His purpose is to code and make systems that implement the code. But he is to do this in a way that is safe and unharmful. As he said it himself “developers are often one of the last lines of defense against potentially dangerous and unethical practices’ ‘. Using the Confucian tool Sourour did not do this. He knowingly coded a code that harmed society in detrimental ways he can never fix. If he used the tool he would have made the best decision for not only his conscience but for those people as well. Using the Confucian tool Sourour should have told his bosses that this was unethical and that he was not going to code it. The other option would be he would code it but he would not allow it to trick women into taking a drug. Instead giving them a drug that they actually need.

Armstrong 

Mary’s whole point is within a professional setting it is important to have confidentiality. Her point on confidentiality ties directly into the code of ethics principles. Confidentiality is information that is kept secret between consumers and business or in this case employers and employees. It is something that is needed and not something that can be pushed to the side. She speaks on prima facie duties in terms of negative and positive duties. Meaning the only time confidentiality can be broken is when it can expose harm to society which is her main point. The whole point of these duties are like roles for employers and employees to follow. It is a responsibility they are given to carry out. As a positive duty it is their job to maintain confidentiality without harming the public. As a negative duty they have to break confidentiality if it harms society in order to prevent it from harming society. That is her whole point: abandoning your responsibility is okay if it means stopping harm to the public or society. 

Sourour’s main problem is the fact he was too focused on maintaining the relationship between him and his employer. Like he said he was finally in a good position in life he wasn’t going to risk losing it all. Sourour only focused on his obligation to his job and not society. He didn’t think about the possible consequences his code would cause to society. It wasn’t until several women started dying to make him realize his mistake. He never felt okay about writing that code. He should have put the public’s interest and safety first instead of his own self. It was a negative duty that he should have taken action against and didn’t. 

We know that Confucianism deals with having a role playing part given an individual’s life. However that doesn’t mean a person has to strictly follow that role fully. There are certain situations where you do what is best for not only yourself but for the well being of others. In this case Sourour did his role well and he also did what he was supposed to do far as keeping his responsibilities. However at the time we can not consider him a Confucian because his actions do not match that of a Confucian. A Confucian would do his or her role but they would do it in the terms it wouldn’t cause damages to society. As I said before Sourour should have gone against his obligation to his job and chose to protect society because that is what Confucianism is about staying on a righteous path and not causing harm in the process. Doing unto others as we want to ourselves. Sourour turns into a Confucian later on. Once he saw the drug was going to affect someone close to him who he has an actual relation to, his whole mood changed. He resigned from the job and now when he codes he makes sure to think of how this might affect the public before he does it. As a Confucian now he does his role while making sure it benefits society.

Conclusion In conclusion, the code was morally problematic because it was done without the consent of the people who would be taking the drug. It was also written in a way that it could easily be taken advantage of. If the patients answered the questions in a certain way they would be recommended the drug whether they needed it or not. This is a problem because it means that people who did not need the drug could have easily taken it and had bad side effects. Even though Sourour kept up the code of ethics of carrying out his responsibility it harmed society and that is something he should have put over his job title. Some indications or drawbacks that people or himself would say is he didn’t know about the side effects. He also didn’t do this on purpose. While I do understand those talking points we can’t ignore the fact that he himself said he was not okay with making the code. In fact when it was brought to his attention from his coworkers that the answers recommended the drug no matter what he did nothing about this. He didn’t talk to management about the issue, he coded it and let it pass. The only thing good about this is Sourour learning through his mistakes. He now codes with the obligation to the public first than his job.