American Red Cross Ethical Dilemmas

For decades, America has fought in many different wars with the need of health assistance for their soldiers. The American Red Cross is a worldwide organization that helped during the times of war but also provided a path for scientific advancements. Through the American Red Cross and other organizations of this time, they opened up the doors for women to take the chance to advance in the medical field by participating in scientific experiments and being at the aide of wounded soldiers. During this time of scrutiny, the Great War was a hidden opportunity for the encroachment of medical research with the contribution to the expansion of nursing.

Numerous accusations on the mismanagements of volunteers and donated funds didn't end with 9/11, but escalated following Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita. When the overwhelming numbers of donations specifically received for the relief efforts of 9/11, the executives made the wrong choice by going against donator’s wishes of how to use those funds. Also, the ARC didn’t update their donation system and was once again bogged down by the overpowering donations that poured in for Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita. On top of all that the ARC failed to get a grip on the financial disasters at its local chapters - unscreened volunteers walked away with ATM cards loaded with donated funds and some manager’s padded their own bank accounts with fundraiser donations (Holguin). For an organization that is supposed to help the country in disaster relief, the ARC has added monetary complications as the icing on the cake.

Every day in the United States hurricanes, floods, fires, accidents and other disasters happen. Once the organization is contacted, they are more than likely the first organization to respond. During hard times, the American Red Cross has a giving site where volunteers can go online and buy items to help support the victims of the disaster. For 18 dollars a volunteer can donate three blankets. For 20 dollars a volunteer can give hot meals to two people. For 2,000 dollars, a volunteer can supply a food truck that will be rushed to the victims of a disaster. 91 percent of its funds on programs support around 200 disasters in the United States daily.

Over the years of Hurricane Katrina, Fema faced many criticisms. Back in 9/11, They acted fast and accordingly to the disaster. During hurricane Katrina, they were slow and had false promises that the locals of New orleans believed (Maestri, “The

It can’t be disputed that since its inception, the Red Cross has had a lasting impact on the overall well-being of American citizens, instilling confidence in them that if a disaster does strike in their lives, the Red Cross is there to ease the pain a bit. However, much like any other organization, the Red Cross has had its fair share of flaws and mishaps. A crucial mistake in the business world may result in a substantial loss of money or even a sentence to prison. Unfortunately for the Red Cross, everything they do and participate in deals with the lives of everyday individuals. As a result, if their jobs aren’t done correctly or mistakes are being made, it could put the lives of thousands at risk and therefore jeopardize their institution. Some may argue that in several instances, there has been mistakes made that have directly and negatively impacted the lives of Americans. An

The American Red Cross is a major organization in the United States and around the world. Clara Barton founded the American chapter in 1881. She was a public servant who decided to get involved during the civil war by attending to wounded soldiers and feeding them on the battlefield. Her sense of humanitarian work was only strengthened by her trip to Europe during the Franco Prussian war, where she discovered the initiative of Henri Dunant (Reitman, 1996). After the battle of Solfinero, this Swiss banker was shocked by the carnage of war and decided to gather doctors and volunteers around the village to help tend to the wounded. This action motivated him to create a nonpartisan organization that can focus on caring for people wounded in wars and conflicts regardless of their origin. (Reitman, 1996). The organization was ratified in the 1864 Geneva Convention by twelve countries and later by many others. The United States Red Cross was founded due to the efforts of Barton in Washington (Reitman, 1996). The first chapter of the national American Red Cross was created in upstate New York. Later, the organization received funding to create its national headquarters in Washington. Since then, the Red Cross has benefited form a close relationship with Washington as it was created by congressional charter more than a century ago and plays a

The American Red Cross changed America greatly and our lives right now may not even be the same if it had not been formed. The workers and volunteers at this organization do so much to help the lives of so many Americans. This trend of these workers helping is still happening to this day and hopefully will continue on into later years. The American Red Cross has done a lot for our nation. One could believe that it is one of the most successful organizations formed in the United States.

In the couple days after Hurricane Katrina, many people were left to think whether help was on the way due to the uninhabitable conditions. The ill-timed response lead to a lot of government officials being removed from their positions for their failure to perform at an exceedingly high level with regards to the issuance of natural disaster assistance. Even though there were a lot of improprieties were committed, there were a lot of federal entities that provided a great amount of aid directly after the storm. For instance, the National Guard was commended highly for their participation in the recovery efforts during and after Hurricane Katrina in all areas that were affected, especially New Orleans.

Instantly following hurricane Katrina, FEMA was hesitant and did not accept help from non-government organizations, “The American Red Cross was not allowed into New Orleans following the disaster and was unable to supplement the government’s response’ (American Red Cross 2005).” According to the Government Accountability Office, during the hurricane Katrina catastrophe, the failure to designate a single official to lead the overall federal response made matters worse (Fessler, 2006). The Government Accountability Office also noted that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff never named the storm as a catastrophic event which would have activated a much greater federal response (Fessler,

FEMA faced Katrina, they had sponsored a project called Hurricane Pam but were cut out before it was

In the integration of FEMA into the DHS, FEMA had to contribute to the start-up costs of the new department, but unfortunately evidence suggests that the agency may have been made to pay a disproportionately higher amount than larger agencies. FEMA officials say this directly affected their levels of service in 2004 and 2005 (14). In the integration, FEMA lost some programs, but lost major ones as well (14). In 2005, plans continued to reduce FEMA. Director at the time, Michael Brown, wrote a memo in June expressing his concern about the agency’s future if the cuts continued (13). Perhaps the most ironic cut was the disaster planning exercise “Hurricane Pam.” This exercise, in which outlines a scenario where a disastrous hurricane hits New Orleans, leaving more than 100,000 people in the city, began a year before Katrina. The exercise was never finished because the Bush Administration cut funding (13).

The majority of the immediate relief occurred thanks to the aid of private organizations such as the Red Cross along with the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (McNeill, 2011). The Bush administration and other government figures acted incredibly slowly and were unable to give the

According to the New York Times, of all the federal agencies involved in New York's recovery efforts, none played a greater or more controversial role than FEMA, which was chosen to disburse $8.8 billion in aid. (Chen, Bagli, & Hernandez, 2002)

2001-2006: UWW local associates faced terrible scandals due to corrupt CEO’s and employees who used hundreds of thousands of dollars, which were donated to this charity organization, for their personal use and luxury. Resulting, in mistrust of administrators and workforce of this organization by the public

Of course, not everyone has time to monitor each and every charity for signs of corruption so we took the liberty and did it for you. So check out the following five organizations and avoid them at all costs.