Ethical Issues in film Erin Brockovich There are many ethical issues in the movie Erin Brockovich. This movie is about a mother of three who uncovers a water poisoning case by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in southern California. Erin has the responsibility to feed and educate her three children and she has a general distrust of people. She begins by forcing her lawyer Ed Masry to give her a secretarial job after he failed to get her a settlement from an auto accident. She doesn't exactly fit in at the firm. Other female co-workers do not approve of her cleavage that she shows. Women in the office don't include Erin in going out to lunch and even helping her out when she asks for assistance. There are …show more content…
This representative is perceived to be a heartless person who is not taking responsibility for the damage his company has caused to families like the Jensen’s in the community of Hinckley. Another example of the company, and therefore business world, being rightfully portrayed in a negative light was when an assumed employee from PG&E actually calls to threaten the safety of Erin and her children. Erin is threatened by this person because PG&E know that she has valuable information that could prove their fault in the health issues of Hinckley community members. Clearly, this act portrays the business world in a damaging way, and I believe we would all hope that our companies would never act in a way to threaten an innocent mother and her family. PG&E did not care for others; otherwise they would have changed their policies to stop the use of harmful chemicals. The only employee who I would suggest to be at a higher level on Kohlberg’s scale was a man named Charles Embry who approached Erin toward the end of her investigation. He was instrumental in this law suit because he had saved the documents that PG&E had requested to destroy because he knew it was unethical to destroy the evidence of harmful chemicals. He watched his cousin pass away at only 41 years old, after suffering nose bleeds while cleaning the cooling towers, having his
The Monster study is speech impediment experiment that was done on the children that lived in the orphanage. This experiment was conducted to find out if stuttering was inherited or did environment play a key factor. Wendell Johnson was the speech pathologist that conducted this study to find the cause and cure for stuttering. This study violated a lot of ethical issues because the children were psychological harm, informed consent was not given and the subjects were deceived. Wendell Johnson had a biased opinion in this study because he was a stutter himself and was desperate for a cure. In this paper, I will discuss the background of this experiment and the violations of ethics that were done in this study.
In the 1954 film On The Waterfront, Terry Malloy, the protagonist, wants to become a prizefighter. Meanwhile, he has other priorities which include cultivating to his pigeons to prepare them for racing while also running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly. Johnny Friendly began his childhood fighting in the streets and became involved in an organization that helped him maintain self-preservation. At first, Friendly appears powerful and commands respect but throughout the film, he slowly begins to lose his power as Terry Malloy gains it. Terry witnesses two of Johnny’s thugs murder a man known as Joey Doyle and later meets the man’s sister who gets introduced to Father Barry.
In Spike Lee 's Do the Right Thing, the story takes places in 1989, another year in the long struggle for equality for African-Americans. The film portrays the racial tensions between locals of the neighborhood and an Italian-American family in the majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) in Brooklyn, New York. Spike Lee shows us what a day in the life of the Brooklyn neighborhood consists of and throughout the movie he portrays several different aspects of a modern urban neighborhood, using the many unique personalities of the characters in the movie.
1. The Mayor of a large city was given a free membership in an exclusive golf club by people who have received several city contracts. He also accepted gifts from organizations that have not done business with the City but might in the future. The gifts ranged from $200 tickets to professional sports events to designer watches and jewelry.
1. The sexual harassment issue experienced by Julie from her co-worker, as well as the “ogling” she faced
Erin Brokovich, based on a true story, is a story about an intriguing single mother named Erin whose actions eventually lead to the biggest lawsuit against any corporation in history. Struggling, the ball starts rolling for Erin when she gets into a car accident. Her lawyer thinks she will win in a court case from her accident, but they lose. In compensation for the loss, Erin is given a job at the law firm and begins to dig into a case against Pacific Gas and Electric when she finds out they are trying to buy a resident of Hinkley, California’s home to cover up their depositing of a danger chemical. After her research, she finds that many people in Hinkley have all had medical issues related to this and that there is acknowledgement from
Good Will Hunting is a movie about a troubled young man abandoned by his parents only to be severely abused by the foster parents entrusted to care for him. Due to his tormented childhood he finds himself a young man unable to trust most people besides a few close friends. His prospects for a future out of dead end jobs, in his poverty stricken neighborhood, seem slim. Despite being a natural gifted mathematical genius, Will finds himself frequently involved with the law. It is while working at a janitorial position at MIT that a Field’s Medal winning professor discovers Will’s mathematical talent. When Will finds himself again in court, it is here where the professor bails him out. Upon release from jail and with the stipulation of receiving counseling, and holding himself accountable to the professor, Will
Nurses are faced with ethical issues and dilemmas on a regular basis. Nurses must understand his or her values and morals to be able to deal adequately with the ethical issues he or she is faced with. Some ethical issues nurses are exposed to may be more difficult than others and the ethical decision making process is learned over time.
The movie portrayed the political message through a woman, so it was entertaining and not just a two hour public service announcement. Besides Erin, the only other women in the film are jealous co-workers of Erin’s or the masculinized women of the defending law firm. It is very obvious when watching the movie that the ladies Erin works with do not like her at all. They didn’t like the way she would dress for work, which was very provocative. At one point in the film Erin said “Well it just so happens, I think I look nice. And as long as I have one ass instead of two, I’ll wear what I want, if that’s alright with you.” This part of the movie really shows that she doesn’t care what other people think, and that she is very confident and
Frank, manager of corporate reporting at Amalgamated Forest Products, has threatened to go public with information regarding a falsified report on the effect of effluent controls on the discharge of wastewater from pulp and paper companies, which has angered his boss, Jim McIntosh and the company’s president, Jim Letourneau. Letourneau was to testify before a legislative subcommittee the following week and use the report, “Endangered Species: The Pulp and Paper Industry in the Upper Peninsula”, to give the industry’s perspective on proposed legislation. The section of the report which contained the falsified financial information was prepared by Tina
The movie Office Space is based around an engineer named Peter Gibbons and his two software engineer friends that work at the same company as him. In the Intech office where they work, the depressed Peter despises his job and his work life, as well as his abusive and unfair boss, Bill Lumbergh whom has just hired two consultants to basically downsize the company. This is not good news for Peter and his coworkers, as their jobs are at risk, which upsets them all even more than they were before, adding more stress that is unnecessary at this point in their lives. His best friends, the software engineers Michael Bolton and Samir Nagheenanajar that also hate Intech, are just as stressed and down about their job as Peter. Peter not only has issues
The problem solving methods that might be helpful to assist Jerry in making an ethical decision would be to establish trust with the patient and become aware of the problem. Then analyze the problems and decide on a plan with the patient. He will then want to make sure he reinforces the commitment to the patient and activate the plan. Last, he will follow through with the task and monitor everything until the situation is taken care of.
The movie Erin Brockovich is based on actual events involving a corporate business called Pacific Gas & Electric who knowingly endangering the health of residents and the water supply in the town of Hinkley. Erin is the mother of three children who is out of work. In the midst of her job search she got into an auto accident and was injured. Erin has an ethical and moral responsibility to feed her children so she forces her lawyer Ed Masry to give her a secretarial job after he failed to get her a settlement from the auto accident. Erin has difficulty fitting in at the firm, the other female co-workers do not approve of her attire or her cleavage! The women in the office do not include Erin or help her out when she asks for assistance. Erin stumbles across a case file about real estate which confuses her because it contained medical records. She got curious about the case and asked permission from her boss to work on it. This is the first ethical issue that comes up because she is not a lawyer and should not investigate the case without the proper legal experience.
Jamie Turner faces a difficult situation at Modern Lighting Industries Inc. (MLI). The company is struggling financially and has recently been acquired by a larger firm. Turner was hired as Vice President (V.P.) of marketing and sales by company president Pat Cardullo. Turner was all but guaranteed Cardullo’s position in less than two years when he was hired. However, six months later, the young manager’s future at the company is in serious jeopardy. The root cause(s) can best be summarized as: The denigration of their relationship; which can be traced to two main issues.
Erin Brockovich is in a car accident that is not her fault and hires attorney Ed Masry to defend her. He gave her the impression that she would be getting a good settlement, but she lost the case. She is a single mom of three, has no money and is unable to find a job. She blames him for losing the case (due to lack of preparation) and forces her way in to a job at his law firm. Because of the way she dresses and acts, nobody takes her seriously and treats her with respect. She is given a real estate pro-bono file to open involving the purchase of Donna Jensen’s home by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PS&E). As she read through the documentation, she found it confusing that there was medical