Designed as a textbook for courses in ethics, this book provides the material needed to understand the accidents in which more that 700 people were killed -- accidents that many believe were the result of unethical actions and inactions by individuals, organizations, and government agencies. An introduction to ethical analysis and discussions of the ethical responsibilities involved are also provided. The case study offers material for a sustained inquiry into every level of ethical responsibility reflecting the rich ethical complexity of actual events. The DC-10 Case presents these issues through a collection of original and published articles, excerpts from official accident reports, congressional hearings, and other writing on the DC-10. The authors allow the readers to examine the ethical issues of airline safety as they actually occur, taking account of the circumstances in which they arise.
Designed as a textbook for courses in ethics, this book provides the material needed to understand the accidents in which more that 700 people were killed — accidents that many believe were the result of unethical actions and inactions by individuals, organizations, and government agencies. An introduction to ethical analysis and discussions of the ethical responsibilities involved are also provided. The case study offers material for a sustained inquiry into every level of ethical responsibility reflecting the rich ethical complexity of actual events. The DC-10 Case presents these issues through a collection of original and published articles, excerpts from official accident reports, congressional hearings, and other writing on the DC-10. The authors allow the readers to examine the ethical issues of airline safety as they actually occur, taking account of the circumstances in which they arise.
On June 12, 1972, a powerful explosion rocked American Airlines Flight 96 a mere five minutes after its takeoff from Detroit. The explosion ripped a gaping hole in the bottom of the aircraft and jammed the hydraulic controls. Miraculously, despite the damage and ensuing chaos, the pilots were able to land the plane safely. Less than two years later, on March 3, 1974, a sudden, forceful blowout tore through Turk Hava Yollari (THY) Flight 981 from Paris to London. THY Flight 981 was not as lucky as Flight 96; it crashed in a forest in France, and none of the 346 people onboard survived. What caused the mysterious explosions? How were they linked? Could they have been prevented? The Flight 981 Disaster addresses these questions and many more, offering a fascinating insiders' look at two dramatic aviation disasters.
Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine
This volume is a collection of articles published since engineering ethics developed a distinct scholarly field in the late 1970s that will help define the field of engineering ethics. Among the perennial questions addressed are: What is engineering (and what is engineering ethics)? What professional responsibilities do engineers have and why? What professional autonomy can engineers have in large organizations? What is the relationship between ethics and codes of ethics and how should engineering ethics be taught?
