ABSTRACT

This case study will discuss how a UK newspaper reported a story about a two-year-old being diagnosed with leukemia without their mother’s permission. In August 2019, the South Shropshire Journal published a full article about the two-year-old child’s health condition and information about the child’s family. This case study will discuss how the South Shropshire Journal received the information about the child’s health condition. The Potter Box will be used in this case study to analyze the ethical issues raised by the South Shropshire Journal’s decision to run the story. The Utilitarian theory by John Stuart Mill will be applied in this situation. Authors Patterson et al. (2019) state, “the benefit of utilitarianism is that it provides a principle by which rightness and wrongness can be identified and judged, conflicts can be resolved, and exceptions can be decided” (p. 12). This case study will conclude how this matter was handled by the Independent Press Standards Organization and will answer the following three questions:

Micro: What steps should the South Shropshire Journal have taken before printing this story?

Midrange: Should the privacy of a child differ from that of an adult?

Macro: What other ethical considerations beyond privacy of a minor are important in this case?