What is your opinion of this situation?

[ericoh2]

I was just looking to see some answers to this question. Please give an explanation as to why you think Heinz was right or wrong in this situation.


A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg's_stages_of_moral_development#cite_note-philmoral-4

 

[BucephalusBB]

Yes, he should have. this was the only option to save the person he loves. This if he really could not get the money in any way.

However, The law says he is not allowed to steal. So he should be put to justice afterwards.
Thankfully all he stole was a worth of 2000 dollar, so he'll probably only get a fine or some workinghours.

 

[Jackytar]

Okay, I'll give it a shot. The answer is no. The druggist has a right to property.

Heinz should have let the other people in the small town know about the druggist's business practices.

Jackytar

 

[Smoke]

Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife?

I don't have any problem with it.

Why or why not?

It's his one chance to save his wife's life. He'd be crazy to consider that less important than the druggist's intellectual property rights.

 

[BucephalusBB]

Heinz should have let the other people in the small town know about the druggist's business practices.

That would have won him nothing though.

 

[Breathe]

I'm gonna say yes.
But he should still pay the druggist back when he can.

 

[3.14]

he should just have gotten a loan from the bank, thats what there there for

what if the extra money went to further research into the cure, he would be robbing others of a potential cure
what if there was a gaurd, one of them might have been injured or killed

but if he did it he should just be honarable and leave a, i owe you note for the remainder of the money, and turn himself in

 

[Jackytar]

That would have won him nothing though.

Perhaps cause him to reconsider? Who would do business with this guy?

Jackytar

 

[BucephalusBB]

Perhaps cause him to reconsider? Who would do business with this guy?

Jackytar

Anybody who's wife is about to die..? :sarcastic

We are not talking about a handy tool to bring the remote closer to your hand (Althogh even that could make money), we are talking about a sort of cure for cancer. He'll sell, no matter what name he received..

 

[Smoke]

But he should still pay the druggist back when he can.

If you mean pay him back for his greed and cruelty, I find it hard to disagree.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

If his wife was dying and time was too short to say, find alternate means like getting a bank loan or whatever, I would be perfectly fine with him stealing the drug. Afterward he of course should be tried, and his case explained, and some sort of action also taken agianst the druggist. At minimum people would boycott that sort of practice, cause him to have to shut down, and have to sell his precious creation... hopefully to someone else who will not make people snivle on the ground trying to get it to save lives.

The problem with this scenario is that people, and our justice system only see things in black and white, and also if he were allowed to get away with it, only having to pay back what he stole, everyone would begin abusing the scenario to try and get the same treatment.

 

[BucephalusBB]

It appears slowly to me, that I am the only one who does not think the seller is doing evil.

I agree that it's touch is sensitive as we are talking about a life here, but the seller found a cure to cancer. That guy needs to get rich, have rights and get a statue or something!!!
What he needs to do is get the patent, sell for a load of cash and live off his money.
The woman in this story has the bad luck that her cancer falls in the time where he wasn't done yet.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

It appears slowly to me, that I am the only one who does not think the seller is doing evil.

I agree that it's touch is sensitive as we are talking about a life here, but the seller found a cure to cancer. That guy needs to get rich, have rights and get a statue or something!!!
What he needs to do is get the patent, sell for a load of cash and live off his money.
The woman in this story has the bad luck that her cancer falls in the time where he wasn't done yet.

Agreed. A larger company could buy it from him, remanufacture it at a lesser cost and sell it for less theoretically, and it would be more widely available and covered through assistance programs etc.

The problem is that the seller is too arrogant and greedy to think of such a thing, he's hoarding the drug, and making people snivle on the ground scraping up pennies so they can buy it to save a loved one. Giving a 50% discount even, would not impede on his path to richness and fame.

Could he be tried for manslaughter if the man couldn't get it and his wife died as result?

I thought there was a law, like for EMT's and doctors and such, that if you have the means to save a life and you don't offer assistance, you can be tried for something... Same scenario it's just a drug instead of skills, right?

 

[BucephalusBB]

Agreed. A larger company could buy it from him, remanufacture it at a lesser cost and sell it for less theoretically, and it would be more widely available and covered through assistance programs etc.

It's the govermnents job to take care of it's people. Eventually they will make the sale (happen)

The problem is that the seller is too arrogant and greedy to think of such a thing,

This should be the wife's problem. Not the governments problem.
He's got a cure for cancer, he can have all the money in the world if he wants. He can be arrogant and greedy. Personally I think he is allowed to be a lot more arrogant than 2000 dollar.

he's hoarding the drug, and making people snivle on the ground scraping up pennies so they can buy it to save a loved one. Giving a 50% discount even, would not impede on his path to richness and fame.

Nope, but if it has to be in law that one has to be extra nice to eachother, we would need a lot more jailcells.
I am not saying he is a nice guy, don't get me wrong.

Could he be tried for manslaughter if the man couldn't get it and his wife died as result?

Should he if making the product costs more than what the husband has? Or even?
Is the seller allowed to make some profit? From wich point do you want the seller to give up his product?

I thought there was a law, like for EMT's and doctors and such, that if you have the means to save a life and you don't offer assistance, you can be tried for something... Same scenario it's just a drug instead of skills, right?

Don't know. Maybe there is a difference in giving up your propertie and helping without that..?

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Don't know. Maybe there is a difference in giving up your propertie and helping without that..?

That's what it is. Okay.... agreed.

Okay, so I'll go back to the original. Seller is a malicious ***, even if it is rightfully so, in which case dude should just steal the drug to save his wifes life and pay the price after the fact and hope for a sympathetic judge.

Hm...

wife dying v.s. mediocre punishments

I still say steal it.

The seller will get to prosecute him, go on and be rich and famous, but I bet ya with that kind of attitude he won't have any friends, and will die a sad, lonely, but very comfortable death.

He'll probably become a born agian convert on his death bed, when fear sets in and he starts to feel the pain of death and heartbreak that he let take place which he could have prevented. Death beds have a funny way of slamming people with that kind of karma.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I would have went to the local churches for help. There are plenty of good people who would have helped him.

To address the OP, If I where the druggist, I would have accepted the thousand and made arrangements for the man to pay me back when he could interest free.

If I where the husband, I would have done what ever was needed to provide my wife with the cure. I would take responsibility for any actions I made after the fact.

 

[BucephalusBB]

Okay, so I'll go back to the original. Seller is a malicious ***, even if it is rightfully so, in which case dude should just steal the drug to save his wifes life and pay the price after the fact and hope for a sympathetic judge.

So we agreed all that time

 

[BucephalusBB]

I would have went to the local churches for help. There are plenty of good people who would have helped him.

I am pretty sure that whatever church I go to, none will give me 2000 dollar. Not here anyway..

Wich is not a bad thing. There are way more people with cancer than the church has 2000's to spend.

 

[3.14]

btw am i the only one wondering how its posible that the guy doesn't even have 2000$? i mean if i ask a partial salary advance i would have 2000 easy,
all for voluntering work etc. but if you don't even set aside money just in case something like this happens your pretty naive

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

So we agreed all that time

Me thinks so. I was just being a girl