Case Ananlysis - Coursework is done in the university. You can get help from this document PDF

Preview

Summary

Coursework is done in the university. You can get help from this document...

Description

Case Ananlysis A group of backpackers set out to climb the Himalayas to reach Muktinath, an ancient holy place for pilgrims. The group comprises of Bowen McCoy and his western companion Stephen, a team of Sherpas and their sherpa leader Pasang, four backpackers from New Zealand, two Swiss couples and a Japanese hiking club. To reach Muktinath, the group has to cross a pass at 18,000 feet. The night before attempting to cross the pass, the group camps at 14,500 feet. The group starts early at 3.30 A.M. before the sun could melt the steps in the ice. The New Zealanders leave first, followed by Stephen, Bowen McCoy, porters and Sherpas and then the Swiss. The Japanese lingered in their camp.After climbing for sometime, at 15,500 feet when Stephen and Bowen McCoy were resting, one of the New Zealanders comes back with a sadhu slung across the shoulders and dumps the almost naked, barefoot body. The New Zealander says he had found the sadhu shivering and suffering from hypothermia. The New Zealander was angry because he wanted to get across the pass before the bright sun melted the snow. He asked Stephen, Bowen McCoy, the porters and sherpas to care for the sadhu saying he had done his bit. The sadhu could have taken a safer route through the Kali Gandaki gorge, but he had chosen the higher route through the pass. Stephen, Bowen McCoy and the Swiss clothe the sadhu with warm clothing. Leaving Stephen and Pasang behind, Bowen McCoy takes off with several other porters. Finally they cross the pass and Stephen joins a bit later. However they think about the sadhu who was left to take care of himself at 15,000 feet. The sadhu was offered food & drink by the Japanese hikers, the porters carry the sadhu and leave him in the sun at 15,000 feet pointing to a hut 500 feet below. Though everyone contributed in some way no one was willing to carry the sadhu back to the village below. No one knew what happened to the sadhu . The ethical dilemma was in the decision to take the sadhu back to the village or to continue climbing to cross the pass. The situation was characterized with high amount of stress – to climb the pass before the sun melts the snow or to drop the trip and bring back the sadhu to a village for his care. The dilemma would not exist in any one of the three situations of 1) The sadhu dying in their care. 2) The sadhu demonstrating the ability to reach the village. 3) The group carrying the sadhu back to the village and convincing someone to take care of the sadhu. The group demonstrated a self imposed limit on what each one could do in such a situation and no one owned responsibility for the sadhu. Everyone did his/her bit as long as it did not get too inconvenient. The individual behavior, in this case Stephen’s behavior was overshadowed by the group, leaving very little possibility of making the group see the situation from the perspective of an individual. The situation is a tough one to take a call. If I were to decide between getting the sadhu to a village or going ahead with the climb, I probably would have tried to get a buy in from one of the fellow climbers. If I succeeded, I would have carried the sadhu back to a village for safety. In the event of a failure to get a buy in, I would have continued with my climb, which is what

Stephen did in the group. It is a question of being compassionate to a fellow human being vs blaming the individual for his carelessness to have got himself into such a situation. The sadhu’s need for additional help is not known, though it is logical to believe that the sadhu required the help he could get and the sadhu did not offer any resistance to the help he got from the climbers....