Reference no: EM13830368

Ethical Dilemma
A lawsuit a few years ago made headlines worldwide when aMcDonald's drive-through customer spilled a cup of scaldinghot coffee on herself. Claiming the coffee was too hot tobe safely consumed in a car, the badly burned 80-year-oldwoman won $2.9 million in court. (The judge later reducedthe award to $640,000.) McDonald's claimed the productwas served to the correct specifications and was of properquality. Further, the cup read "Caution-Contents MayBe Hot." McDonald's coffee, at 180º, is substantially hotter(by corporate rule) than typical restaurant coffee, despitehundreds of coffee-scalding complaints in the past 10 years.Similar court cases, incidentally, resulted in smaller verdicts,but again in favor of the plaintiffs. For example, Motor CityBagel Shop was sued for a spilled cup of coffee by a drivethroughpatron, and Starbucks by a customer who spilledcoffee on her own ankle.Are McDonald's, Motor City, and Starbucks at fault insituations such as these? How do quality and ethics enter intothese cases?

How can this issue be addressed from a Christian worldview? What guidance from a Biblical perspective could be apllied to understand and possibly resolve the dilemma? Paper should include 6 external citations.