Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur Mid-Spring Examination Spring Semester 2012 Dept.

of Humanities & Social Sciences -INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS (HS30070) Full marks: 60 Time 2 hours
Answers should be precise and to the point.
l. Consider the following:

... Newly released data shows that an Indian girl child aged 1-5 years is 75% more likely to die than an Indian boy, making this the worst gender differential in child mortaJity for any country in the world .... Most of the world is experiencing a faster fall in female infant and child mortality than in male, on account of well established biological factors which make girls better survivors of early infancy given equal access to resources. The world's two most populous countries. however, buck this trend. Newly released United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs ( UN-DESA) data for 150 countries over 40 years shows that India and China are the only two countries in the world where female infant mortality is higher than male infant mortality in the 2000s. In China. there are 76 male infant deaths for every 100 female infat}t deaths compared with 122 male infanf deaths for every 100 female infant deaths in the developing world as a whole .... Vv'hen it comes to the child mortality sex ratio, however, India is far and away the world's worst. In the 2000s, there were 56 male child deaths in India for every 100 female child deaths, .. This ratio has got progressively worse since the 1970s in India, even as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Iraq improved. The UN report is clear that high girl child mortality is explained by socio-cultural values. So strong is the biological advantage f(>r girls in early childhood that higher mortality among girls should be seen as "a powerful warning that differential treatment or access to resources is putting girls at a disadvantage", the report says. "Higher female mortality from age 1 onwards clearly indicated sustained discrimination," says P Arokiasamy, professor of development studies at Mumbai's International Institute for Population Studies, who has studied gender differentials in child mortality in India. "Such neglect and discrimination can be in three areas: food and nutrition, healthcare and emotional wellbeing. Of these, neglect of the healthcare of the girl child is the most direct determinant of mortality," says Arokisamy. Studies have shown that health-related neglect 111ay involve waiting longer before taking a sick girl to a doctor than a sick boy, and is also reflected in lower rates of immW1ization for girls than boys ... ~While pre-natal discrimination in the form of sex-selective abortions is more common among better educated upper income households. post-natal discrimination or neglect is more comnion among poorer, less educated mral households, he adds". [Rukmini Shrinivasan, 'India deadliest place in world for girl child', The Times of/ndia, Feb 1 2012, p.IJ

Identify at least three 'ethical' issues related to the news item above. Explain in what sense the issues you have identified have ethical content in them. What would be your answer if someone uses ethical relativism to defend the practice as a cultural practice? -1 52. Explain the differences, where appropriate with examples, between: (a) Des_criptive and Normative study of behavior {b) De Waals's explanation of altruism (selflessness) and Edward Wilson's explanation of altruism. (c) Sociobiological basis of morality and social basis of morality

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3. What is axiology and how is it connected to Ethics? Explain what is meant by the claim "One of the important aims of ethics is to enable value identification and value clarification", and comment on the need for this in personal and professional life. -1 5-

4. A few years ago, the U.S department of Defense charged that National Semiconductor had sold the department computer parts without testing them properly and then had falsified the records in order to hide the fraud. The computer parts were installed in ships, phmes, weapons and nuclear bombs around the world and so could no longer be tracked down. An official of the department of Defense was quoted as saying that if a component was defective and malfunctioned "We're talking about lives. You could have a missile that would end up in Cleveland instead of the intended target." Although national semiconductor was indicted and fined for the crime as a corporation, no individuals within the company were ever charged with any crimes in the case. The Department of Defense objected that since "a corporation acts only through the employees and officers,' employees and manages who make up the company and who participated in the crime should have been held responsible for it. National Semiconductor's chairman felt differently: "We totally disagree with the defense Department's proposal. We have repeatedly stated that we accept the responsibility as a company [only] and we steadfastly continue to stand by that statement." According to the Chairman, the corporation and not its members was responsible for these criminal acts.

(a) Was National Semiconductor ethically responsible? Justify your answer. (b) Which position
do you think the society should accept? The position of National Semiconductor or that of the Department of Defense? Briefly explain. -1 5-

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