VitalBlend Pharmaceuticals: Ethical Dilemma

The microbiology team leader at pharmaceutical manufacturer VitalBlend Pharmaceuticals (VitalBlend) was facing an ethical dilemma. VitalBlend was urgently trying to ship its latest product, baby vitamin drops, to its customer. In her role as team leader of the company’s microbiology testing laboratory, she had discovered that the entire batch of the new product might be contaminated by a harmful bacterium that could be particularly dangerous for babies and young children. Despite having expressed her suspicions, the team leader was being pressured by her supervisor and other managers to sign off on releasing the product to the customer, since it had passed all of the standard quality control tests and management did not want to delay the shipment. She now had to decide what to do.