
Concerns • 483
Based on this analysis, Ford legally chose not to make the design changes,
which would have made the Pinto safer. However, just because it was legal
doesn’t necessarily mean that it was ethical. It is dicult to understand
how a price can be put on saving a human life.
20
e BPL formula (derived from the case US v. Carroll Towing
21
, involv-
ing the driing of a barge and adjudicated by Judge Learned Hand) looks
like this:
where:
B is the burden of being prudent (precautionary actions)
P is the probability of loss
L is the magnitude of the loss
As indicated in Leggett’s comments, determining the loss value of a
human life ca ...