The Golden Gate Bridge is “considered to be one of the best and most beautiful examples of bridge design” (Poel and Royakkers 110). Unfortunately, this bridge is also "the US's most popular place to commit suicide" (110). Due to this fact, bridge designers decided that they needed to consider the option of installing some sort of suicide prevention system. Before any decision was made, the ramifications of both implementing a system and not implementing one had to be considered. Deciding whether or not to implement a system calls for an in-depth analysis of the ethics. One must identify the ethical dilemmas present, and provide analysis on the effects on all the stakeholders involved. The suicide barrier presents numerous ethical …show more content…
The last dilemma faced is whose life is of more value, those who use the bridge for transportation or those who use it for suicide. This is a dilemma because “the screen might create dangerous wind resistance and make the bridge structurally unstable,” which increases the risk of those who use the bridge for transportation (111). Although this risk is undoubtedly small, it still places a vastly larger amount of people in danger. This is known because there is an “average of 20 to 25 [deaths] per year” by suicide, yet a larger number of vehicles, which have the possibility of containing more than one passenger, pass over the bridge every minute ("Traffic/Toll Data" 1). The resulting dilemma is whether one should slightly increase the risk for millions of people in order to drastically decrease the risk for an individual. By Utilitarianism, you should choose the action that decreases the risk the most for the largest number of people, but due to not being able to truly quantify the risk, the decision remains unclear. An ethical dilemma does not have a distinct solution as no action is completely without an error in morality, in order to achieve a good outcome, it is essential to dissect the issue and identify the primary stakeholders. Before a good outcome to an ethical dilemma is achieved obstacles must be overcome through argumentation and analyzing the
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder, presents the ancient dilemma of whether tragedy is the result of chance or a manifestation of divine intervention. It explores the lives of five people and reveals their internal struggles for survival. The sadness that is created by the undying love of the Marquesa de Montemayor for her daughter, Esteban for his twin brother, Manual and Uncle Pio for the vain actress, Camilla Perichole, is so overwhelming in its enormity, that when tragedy strikes, we feel relief that their suffering is finally over.
America`s infrastructure has been a concern for years, but as populations begin to grow and structures begin to become outdated the problem has become more urgent. One focus of this infrastructure problem is bridges, which are growing weaker causing economic and social concerns. The primary controversy around these bridge failures is what is causing them and the potential they have to cause disasters. Moreover, this potential is why Americans should invest more into their infrastructure.
Every day people make decisions that may have profound effect on their personal and/or professional lives as well as the lives of others. The decision people make have a foundation on their personal, cultural, and perhaps organizational values. When these values are in disagreement, an ethical dilemma occurs.
Cabanatuan, Michael. "Golden Gate Bridge Board OKs $76 Million for Suicide Barrier." SFGate. N.p., 28 June 2014. Web. 13 May 2015.
When watching this TED video presented by Kevin Briggs about the Golden Gate bridge being between suicide and life, I was shocked and full of sadness for the people struggling. I have never been on or have seen this bridge but I have heard of it being beautiful and huge, what I have not heard was how over 1,600 people have committed suicide on it. I would like to believe that when people are at the point of killing themselves there is a chance to convince them otherwise, but unfortunately it is difficult to do so.
The Bridge to the Other Side Caleb E. Jameson South Umpqua Highschool Author Note This paper was written for Writing 121, Mrs Fye The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge is a monument of human abilities, goals, and accomplishments. It is beautiful and a huge tourist attraction for many people inside and outside of the area. To some it is a symbol of their heritage and ancestors success; To some it is just inspiring to look at; To others it s a landmark to mourn over, because of loved ones that were stricken with grief and couldn't handle it anymore. That’s right, this marvelous work of art is used as a weapon and tool for suicide.. The government wants to make the Bridge suicide proof by using railings, nets, or a combination of the two. Three
Eddie Carbone is an American-Sicilian man working in Brooklyn. He works as a longshoreman: carrying crates and goods from the ships. He is quite a large man. His job requires him to be strong and a good worker. In other words he is very masculine. He is an ordinary man. He lives with his wife and niece, whom he treats like a daughter, and like all good men should do, he works every day to provide them with enough money to survive on. Eddie is a man’s man. He lives within a close-knit community of Sicilians and is a well respected member of society. Eddie sees himself as a prime example of how a man should act and look.
In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened, and since then there have been recurring suicides from people jumping to their deaths. If I were on the board of the Golden Gate Bridge, the rest of the board and I would work to find a solution, or to slow the problem. There were three situations that the book gave that are all excellent reasons why and why not to add safety features to the bridge so that people would not be able to commit suicide from there anymore. Reason one stated that the government should not have a say when it comes to a person's free will to kill oneself. I agree with that statement, but also there are other ways for this to happen and as a state and government we should be protecting people and trying to stop them from killing themselves; especially from a state landmark. I feel like that looks bad for the
most bridges are steady bridges, this means that they have no shifting components and stay in one area till they fail or are demolished. Temporary bridges, which includes Bailey bridges, are designed to be assembled, and taken aside, transported to a awesome website on line, and re-used. They may be vital in military engineering, and also are used to carry website online visitors even as an vintage bridge is being rebuilt. Movable bridges are designed to transport out of the manner of boats or other varieties of site visitors, which would possibly in any other case be too tall to healthful. Those are typically electrically powered.
On October 17, 1989, an earthquake hit San Francisco, California, killing at least fifty people and injuring several others. This earthquake registered as a 6.9 on the Richter scale, the largest since 1906. Not only did this earthquake devastate numerous families’ homes, it also collapsed the Oakland Bay Bridge. The damage due to the earthquake resulted in a cost of around ten billion dollars. The top section of the bridge collapsed, leading to a massive. To prevent similar disasters in the upcoming few decades, engineers launched an effort to upgrade other bridges in the area. Scientists say there is a possibility of another earthquake similar to Loma Prieta, the earthquake in 1989, in the next fifteen years. The key difficulty engineers reflected upon was the
Have you ever been asked the question, “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?” Well, I have always said San Francisco. San Francisco is one of the most beautiful places in the world. They have the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, and many sport teams.
Like another members of the board of the Golden Gate Bridge argued. The government has no business interfering with the free will of persons who whish to commit suicide, and if the Golden Gate Bridge is made suicide proof, persons who wish to commit suicide will easily find some other site, such as the nearby Bay Bridge. Also, by altering the appearance of the Golden Gate Bridge one of the main attractions of the San Francisco, by making it suicide proof, it will ruin the image of the Bridge; the tourism of the San Francisco city, would decrease. Therefore, the economy and mainly the local businesses of the city will suffer. Even thought, the government has no business interfering in people’s wishes to end their life, but if by making the Golden
any contact with any men, even his own friends. It is very early on in
In 1769, Don Gaspar de Portola set out from San Diego with a group of 60 men on horseback. Their goal was to head North to find Monterey Bay but never recognized the bay. Tired, hungry, and lost, the men finally reach San Pedro Mountain and rested there in Pedro Valley. A few days later, one of Portola’s men Jose Francisco Ortega, led a group of men on a three day tour, showing various things such as the trees, wildlife, and ways to live. Ortega’s notes lead up to showing he actually passed through the San Francisco Bay but he figured it was just an estuary. When Ortega returned to camp he told Portola about the things he saw, Portula decided to go and see more into this “estuary.” The men climbed to the top of what is now called “Sweeney Ridge” looking for a better view. Once they climbed to the top they recognized the body of
The first step towards resolving an ethical dilemma is recognising that the problem exists (Joseph & Conrad, 2013). According to