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Ethical Dilemmas In Soma Karalıkdere Coal Mine

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A shameful and tragic event for the country and for all of its people. According to the news, the reason behind Turkey’s biggest mine “accident” that happened in Soma Eynez/Karanlıkdere Coal Mine was a malfunction in the electrical circuits of a power distributor which caused a huge fire. 787 people were stuck underground, around 90 of them were injured and 301 of them never even made it out alive because of carbon monoxide poisoning. There are certain questions that flood our minds. For example, do these people have to risk their lives every day just so their boss can earn more? Are they fully aware of the conditions they work under? Can they really refuse these conditions? Could the company have implemented more realistic security and safety measures? All those matters must be argued to understand the ethical dilemmas present in this case. First of all, the miners are also people that have the right to live. No one should be forced directly or indirectly to work under dangerous conditions. As with all other professions, miners should also have standards that enable them to work under acceptable conditions. Now the relativity of the term acceptable is another matter, but the point stands. Also the companies that rule the mining industry …show more content…

The company was warned about possible dangers, yet they decided to increase the production rate in spite of the poor infrastructure and took no precautions whatsoever. Their greedy actions led to the death of 301 people. They thought of these individuals as simple variables, numbers in an equation and did what was “right” for the company. What they did was morally wrong and just a few people were put on trial. The blame is on the whole company as it didn’t do its responsibility to take care of its workers and simply overlooked the lack of precautions and the dangerous working environment which eventually caused 301 people to lose their

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