November 1st , 2010

TRM 409.01

BUSINESS ETHICS

Case Study:

“Slavery in the Chocolate Industry”

Instructor: Perran AkanStudent: Neşe RomanStudent ID: 2006104603

From the perspective of Utilitarianism, child slavery contributes the economics position of the

country. As I know, the economic situation of the country is bad, they are one of the third

world countries. What is more, cocoa beans prices decreased in the year 1996 - 2000. So,

farmers want to reduce the cost of production with cutting the wages and using slavery.

According to Utilitarianism, the “right” action or policy is the one that will produce the

greatest net benefits or the lowest net costs. From that point, they reduce costs, and maximize

their net benefits from child slavery. The major difficulty with Utilitarianism is that it is

unable to deal with rights and justice. For instance, from the point of social justice, it is clear

that child slavery is the result of unequal distribution of burdens. Utilitarianism only looks at

the utility, not the distribution of it among the members of society.

The important ignorance on ethics in Utilitarianism, bring the consideration of justice and

rights. Justice looks at how the benefits and burdens distributed among the society. On the

other hand, rights look at the individual entitlements to freedom of choice and well being.

From the rights point of view, there are no clues about the legal rights of the children. I do not

think that government has labor or child labor rights. Also, poor children deprived of the

moral rights. They tortured, they are beaten and sometimes they even die or killed on the

cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Regardless of the legal system under which they

live, every human being of every nationality have a right to not tortured, have a right to life.

In terms of contractual rights, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, the

members of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the World Cocoa Foundation,

together with several human rights groups and the Ivory Coast government signed a

“Memorandum of Cooperation” With this cooperation, in a way they work toward ending the

use of child slaves in Ivory Cost. But I think this is not enough. This only provides child

slaves not to work, but also they should have more rights to live in a better life.

If we think the Kant’s categorical imperative, how would we feel if our children work as a

slave in farms?(reversibility) Or what will we do if everybody does not care the child slavery

in the world? (universalizability)

From the point of justice and fairness, is it fair to use children in farms instead of adult

employers? Is it fair to torture and kill young boys for to eat a piece of chocolate? If we think

that slavery is unjust, then we condemn a society that uses slavery even if slavery makes that

society more productive. Unfortunately, as in our case, some countries which are with

extreme deprivation and poverty, seem to hold “injustice” as “justice” for economical gains. I

think 3 types of justice should apply in the case. Firstly, society’s benefits and burdens should

not be distributed on the children. They are in growing age; they should not do heavy work.

Instead they should have education. According to retributive justice the farmers and families

should be punished because of they use child as a slave. There should be compensation for the

health expenses of slave children in terms of compensatory justice. Because they work in very

heavy conditions and most of them lose their health.

According to United Nations Children’s Fund findings in 1998, there is child slavery in Ivory

Coast. After 2000, True Vision Tv company show the videos of child slavery in Ivory Coast

Farms and then the society’s attention is focused on the issue. I think after the societies

attention, they started to “care” child slavery. Because of the customers are aware of the name

of the companies and the work conditions in the area. Knowing the situation, every human

being is morally responsible for their position. Ethic of care is an ethic that emphasizes caring

for the concrete well being of those near to us. I think, chocolate manufacture companies

should have a close relationship with their workers who are “child slaves” and must end child

slavery and provide better working conditions for other labors.

I do not think that virtue theory have any relevance to the case. Because using child as a labor,

government officials accept bribery so from my point of view, there is no moral virtues in the

case.

In my opinion, there is no justice, rights and caring in the case. Unfortunately, obviously, the

main issue is Utilitarianism. It a very critical point that in developed countries, every human

being has a lot of rights, and in undeveloped countries people tradeoff their rights for the

economical stability of the country. It is not fair. Of course, nations’ benefits should be taken

into consideration but we should not ignore that we are “human” in the same country which is

“World”.