Name: Jarrod Cheang

Vivian Francis
Tan Chia Hwai
Chew Ving Hern

Bhopal Disaster
Use the ethical theories discussed in this chapter to analyze the Bhopal case. Topics to be
considered should include the placing of a hazardous plant in a populated area, decisions to
defer maintenance on essential safety systems, etc. Important theories to consider when doing
your analysis are rights and duty ethics and utilitarianism. Discuss the disaster using ethical
theories in this chapter. Analysis shall include the placing of a hazardous plant in a populated
area, decisions to defer maintenance on essential safety systems, etc.

*Utilitarianism 
Based on this disaster, Bhopal disaster, one of the ethics should be maintained is that
utilitarianism.  Utilitarianism can be further divided into two different types, which are Act
Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism, where Act Utilitarianism focuses on the individual
actions performed rather than obeying the rules and regulations; while Rule Utilitarianism is
such in the way that holding on moral values are prioritized. This incident is purely based on
Act Utilitarianism due to the greed of the villagers and the company responsible, Union
Carbide India Limited (UCIL), where they focuses on the profit gained. By lacking moral
values and empathy to the villagers staying near to the plant, and with the carelessness of the
plant operator, letting the emergency system to be turned on, discharging the toxic gases
(Methyl Isocynate) into the atmosphere, hence causing deaths of villagers around the small
village where the factory is set.

* Duty Ethics

  Duty Ethics is known as Deontological ethics, it is the normative ethical theory that the
morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a
series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of the action.
    Responsibility for safety is the most important aspect and highest ethical priority of any
industry. There should also be a proper emergency response plan. However, most of the
safety systems in the plant were not in operating order. The vent gas scrubber designed to
neutralize the gas was shut down as it was deemed unnecessary during periods when
production was suspended.Moreover, the flare tower could only handle a quarter of the gas
that leaked in 1984, and to make it worse, it was out of order at the time of the incident
because a section of the pipe connecting it to the tank was being repaired. [4] To reduce
energy costs, the refrigeration system had been shut down for 5 months, causing the
temperature to increase by 3 to 4 times.The build-up in temperature and pressure is believed
to have affected the magnitude of the gas release.
    Even the tanks storing the MIC gas were overloaded as they were not to be filled more
than 60 percent of capacity based on carbide manuals. The purpose of this is to allocate extra
space to dilute the gases in case of emergencies. In addition, the emergency dump tank was
already occupied by the large amounts of the chemicals. 
   After the disaster breakdown, the director of UCC in UCIL packed up his belongings and
moved back to America, denying the breakdown at the factory was related to him or his
company. He stated that the breakdown was caused by the human errors which came from the
workers at the factory and not the management nor the top personnel. The action of the
chairperson of UCC abandoning the tragedy and putting the blame on the low-class workers
is professionally unethical. They took advantage of the illiterate and uneducated workers of
the factory to run away from the blame. As a result, the government of India fined the UCC
in United States for all the loss of lives related to the factory breakdown with the amount of
$470 million, and distributed to the family of deceased.
     What is the ethical orientation of the government? Government should protect themselves
under the articles 300 ofIndian Constitution. And it didn't pay any compensation to the
victims due to its inability to control under the factory's effect. They didn't take any
responsibility to operate the city limit for example apart from permitting 

* Right Ethics
The concept of rights based ethics is that there are some rights, both positive and
negative, that all humans have based only on the fact that they are human. These rights can be
natural or conventional. That is, natural rights are those that are moral while conventional are
those created by humans and reflect society's values.
There were one or two of the bleeder valves at the bottom of the discharge pipes that
were blocked. The worker doing the washing noticed this, and stopped the washing to
report the problem. However, his immediate superior, an operations supervisor rather
than a maintenance supervisor, told him to continue. 
The next day, the tank ruptured and within an hour 40 tons of vapour was discharged.
In relation with this, it was highly unethical for the worker’s immediate supervisor to
instruct the worker to continue despite knowing the malfunctions discovered. It was also
unethical for the worker to report to the wrong superior. However, he still could not be
blamed as there were no proper educational courses for response protocol or code of conduct
conducted for the workers in the plant. The supervisor should have adhered to the standard or
general safety protocols and evaluated the risks upon finding out about the malfunction. He
should have made proper judgment based on proper moral principles before making that
decision. If he would have made the right ethical call and the periodic washing was put to
halt, the whole disaster would have been avoided.

* Virtue Ethics 
Ethical principle insists that one should live a life in the middle, where it is not lacking nor
exceeding. Anything lacking, or exceeding is considered a vice.
In the case of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, there are mainly three parties involved; the company
named Union Carbide India Limited, the local government and the victims. In an attempt to
evaluate the case using the principles of virtue ethics, it will dissect into each party and
identify the virtues or vices they have prior to the incident.
First is the company, UCIL. In the many investigations done about the incident, among the
major faults that were found were poor facility and safety systems, and undertrained
workers. Investigations indicate that prior to the incident, Union Carbide was cutting down
on costs in major divisions of the company including manpower and facilities. Union Carbide
was being parsimonious to the point where safety in the facility was being compromised.
This led to several small-scale incidents inside the factory that happened before the gas
tragedy, one of which involved the death of a worker. Another vice exhibited by Union
Carbide was negligence. Their workers were poorly trained, and their facilities rarely had its
maintenance. Due to the frequent minor incidents, the employees themselves pushed for a
major inspection and fixing of most of the facilities, but they were denied. Moreover, despite
the fact that their chemical plant was situated in the middle of a residential area, they never
informed the residents about safety precautions and dangers that the chemicals they are
dealing with in the factory can bring in case of incidents.
The next party involved is the government. Their mindlessness regarding the issue and the
Union Carbide itself has also contributed to the factors leading to the tragedy. For starters, a
huge chemical plant is sitting in the middle of a densely populated area and yet, there were no
actions done regarding this, not even providing the residents with emergency drills at the
very least. The deteriorating facility of Union Carbide has also managed to go unnoticed by
the local government when they should have done frequent inspections in facilities like this to
ensure that it is still within the safety standards set by the law.
Lastly, the victims; the fact that most of the residents around the Union Carbide plant were
informal settlers were a sign of ignorance on the part of the victims. When Union Carbide’s
plant was first built, there were no residents around the proximity. However, as the years
passed, informal settlers started growing due to opportunities of work brought about by
the company.   
INVOLVED PARTIES VICES
Union Carbide (The Company)
• Parsimoniousness, Negligence, Greed
Government 
• Mindlessness
Victims 
• Ignorance
* Conclusion 
Upon looking at the Bhopal Case Tragedy in the different lenses of the ethical principles in
business, we’ve come to conclude that the actions done prior to the incident that contributed in its
worsening, and the actions done after are immoral.
All the details revealed in the investigations about the case point to one major factor that sparked
the tragedy: the negligence of Union Carbide India Limited. For starters, their facilities were
poorly maintained. Given the fact that they are a company handling such dangerous chemicals, it
should have been a priority to see to it that their facilities are well maintained, and their workers’
performances of their work are thoroughly and strictly supervised. Furthermore, they have
completely ignored multiple minor incidents inside the plant that happened prior to the great
tragedy; one of which took the life of one of their workers. This incident alone should have been
seen as a warning by the company; yet, they did not do any action about it nor investigated the
primary cause of these incidents. Third, is the mere fact that such a hazardous facility is situated
in a heavily populated residential area is very wrong. This is a factor in which the government
can be held accountable. Lastly, the safety measures of UCIL are all defective and their workers
were not ready to handle such a situation. This goes to show their negligence of all their
responsibilities as a company who handles dangerous chemicals.
The results of this incident only goes to show how important it is for companies to abide by the
ethical standards that the nature of their business demands; or else, it could lead to serious
tragedies just like what happened in Bhopal. This tragedy should serve both as a lesson and as a
reminder to companies to assess their responsibilities given the nature of their operations. They
must see to it that their prime priority is the well-being of not only their employees but the people
around their facility as well.

* Recommendation
Such an incident like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy should never happen again. To ensure this, the
group recommends the following based on the assessment of the tragedy and the analysis
done in this paper:
 Facilities that handle dangerous materials should be situated in an area where there
are no residential areas in proximity.
 All facilities and equipment should be properly cleaned and subject to proper
maintenance schedules.
 Employees should be properly trained and supervised.
 The public should be informed of the dangers of the chemicals that the facility is
handling. There should be proper signages around the property telling people to keep
out. All medical records of the symptoms and treatments when exposed to the plant’s
chemical should be made public.
 The companies must have tested and reliable safety systems. In times of disaster, the
safety systems should work, and employees should know what to do. During leak
accidents, the plant must stop it from spreading as fast as possible. When a leak is
present, and the source has been immediately identified, all employees must be
evacuated except for those who will fix the leak with the correct equipment.
 If leak is unable to be stopped, an alarm must always installed and activated at all of
the nearest communities if the leak has not been stopped in a short span of time