Product Liability

Below is a short sample of the essay Product Liability. If you sign up you could be reading the rest of this essay in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view the essay.

Product Liability

This weeks question concerns liability and moral responsibility in consumer products. As the question is multi-part, the answer will be likewise. To begin, the first question addresses who should be liable for the voluntary actions of others. Specifically, if substantial information concerning the hazards of a product or service has been offered to the consumer, who is to blame if someone is injured? Similar to most questions derived from this course, the answer is it depends.
From a legal standpoint, the contract or arrangement must first be analyzed. If, for example, the activity is a high risk activity such as sky diving or feeding sharks on a scuba dive, then the legal concept of duty of care obviously plays a major role. Without sufficient training, education, and discussion of the inherent risks, potential problems, and possible results of mishaps, the seller is not fulfilling his or her duty warn the buyer of known risks or hazards. In this case, the seller would be legally required to warn the buyer that a failure to exercise reasonable care poses an unreasonable risk of harm (McCarty, 279). If the buyer has been properly apprised of the level of care necessary to avoid unreasonable risk, the buyer then assumes the risk, and subsequent liability, should tragedy occur. This is due to the Assumption of Risk liability defense that states that if the plaintiff knew, or should have known, of the risk inherent in a particular situation and voluntarily assumes that risk, then the defendant is not liable for the plaintiffs injury even if the defendant was negligent. In this case, if the sky diving company requires 4 hours of classroom training before the first jump to thoroughly cover the risks of the activity and the prospective jumper voluntarily assumes the risks, then the skydiving company can not be held liable if the jumper breaks his leg on touchdown because he could not hear when the instructor calls for the flare upon touchdown.
In an ethical light, this arrangement of reasonable liability division is in keeping with our understanding of moral rights in the economic sense. According to the negative right of freedom of consent, all parties should be free to make any arrangement to which both parties agree. It is a moral imperative in this free consenting agreement or contract that both parties fully disclose all pertinent aspects of the arrangement, in this case, the disclosing of the inherent risks involved with jumpin...

The complete article is about 1493 words and 5.97 pages long.

To continue reading the complete article, subscribe below and get free instant unlimited access.

Once you have registered for an Account, No refunds can be issued.
Please make sure you look over the site before you purchase an account!!!