- Determine the facts in the situation:
The fact is I, as a designer, face a problem while developing a low-cost syringe. Adding the auto-disable feature significantly increases the price of the syringe making it potentially unaffordable for hospitals and clinics. However, by not adding the safety feature, I will enable the potential for the dangerous disease. The ethical issue here is by trying to help more people making the syringe affordable, I will be risking the lives of thousands of people. However, if I do not take a step and come up with a solution, I won’t be doing my part of a job responsibly and with compassion towards the people in the country.
- Define the Stakeholders
The stakeholders of the product are the patients, the clinics and hospitals and the nurses.
- Assess the motivations of the Stakeholders
The motivation for the patients is the access to safe and affordable syringes. For the clinics and hospitals – it is the ability to deliver safe syringes to the nurses and patients. And for the nurses it is also the ability to deliver safe injections through the syringes provided by the clinics and hospitals and possibility to utilize the used syringes to minimize the chance of the diseases transmitted through blood.
- Formulate alternative solutions
One of the potential solutions is to install thermal burners in the hospitals, so that nurses can dispose of the used syringes in there. This way, both patients and nurses along with the hospitals and clinics would achieve their goal of safe injections. The pro of this solution is that it brings the possibility of reusing syringes to a minimum. The main con would be involving the government or responsible officials to install these burners.
Another solution would be the one we discussed during the meeting: design the syringes in a way that they change their color to red after the first injection. It would indicate that the syringe was used previously and it is not safe to use it. This solution again would be beneficial for both parties, patients and injection providers. The pro of this approach is it is simple and does not require any outside intervention. The con is the possibility of reusing the syringes individually by some patients that cannot afford to buy new syringes.
And the final solution is to implement a feature of accessing each syringe by the password available only to nurses and hospital/clinic officials. This can be done by putting every syringe in a special package or locking the plunger with some type of a lock. And incentivize patients to bring back the used syringes in order to get their according passwords. This solution could somehow make the process more difficult but in my opinion, it is ethically appropriate, as the providers are making it difficult solely being concerned with patients’ health. The pros of this approach include the possibility to make the process of getting syringes more conscientious as it won’t be very easy to get them. The cons are it might be little impractical and increase the expenses.
- Select the best course of action
In my opinion, the best course of action is to provide access to each syringe with the password and incentivize patients to bring them back as described in the final solution. That way the risk of reusing the syringes would be minimized. It is better than the first solution as it does not require any outside funding and interventions and has the same advantages the first approach does. The second option leaves the possibility to reuse the syringes, which is not safe and imposes potential dangers of blood-transmitted diseases.
- What are the implications of your solution on the venture.
The economic impact of the venture is the increase in the expenses needed: the process will become more expensive and require more resources. The social impact is it will become more difficult for people to do simple things such as getting syringes but they would become more conscious about it. And there is no significant environmental impact this solution imposes.