USA AIRLINES Debbie loved her job. Because of her, thousands of people are able
ID: 3454884 • Letter: U
Question
USA AIRLINES Debbie loved her job. Because of her, thousands of people are able to travel around the United States every day with ease. Some commute between coastal cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco or Washington, DC, and New York-others travel from coast to coast or stop somewhere in between. Even more people cross the Atlantic or Pacific oceans for foreign destinations. All of these people share one thing in common: they are our passengers. They choose to fly USA Airlines, when they are many other domestic and international carriers from which to choose. And that they choose USA Airlines is exactly what they company wants, as embodied in its corporate mission statement: "To be recognized worldwide as the airline of choice." Debbie considers herself important to the choice passengers make to fly USA Airlines, for, as Director of System Operation Control and Pilot Resources, it is she who is in charge of the pilots who fly the planes that carry these passengers safely to their destinations. An airline is only as good as its pilots so she makes sure USA Airlines has only the best This is why she is particularly troubled today. As she sits slow down at her desk, there is a particular pilot-Jeffrey Campbell-about whom she is thinking. Jeffrey is one of the company's top pilots. He began flying as an air force pilot after he graduated from college, but then left the military and switched to commercial planes in his early 30s. He has been flying for USA Airlines for just over 10 years now, and during all that time Jeffrey has proved an excellent pilot and mentor for junior pilots. It is Jeffrey's intent to keep on flying for at least another 10 years-more if he is able to do so. When he and Debbie met to review his annual evaluations, this is exactly what they discussed. At that time, there was no reason to think otherwise. His performance was nothing less than superior, and he passed all medical tests with flying colors But Debbie now has concerns, and she is not sure what to do. Jeffrey's father recently passed away from an apparent overdose of sleeping pills. While it could have been accidental, the speculation at the funeral she attended yesterday was that it was suicide: Mr. Campbell had been diagnosed with Huntington's Disease and had recently become symptomatic. As much compassion as she felt for Mr. Campbell, and for Jeffrey and his loss, her concern now was with her passengers. If Mr. Campbell really did have Huntington's Disease, there is a 50% chance that Jeffrey will have the disease as well. And the disease is often not diagnosed until after neurological anomalies become present-the sort of anomalies that could very well interfere with flying. Can Debbie really wait to address this until Jeffrey becomes symptomatic? What if he is flying at that time? But how can she address this now? Jeffrey passed all of his medical exams. And USA Airlines does not currently administer any sort of genetic testing. What a quandaryExplanation / Answer
From the given information, it could be estimated that Jeffrey would be in his early 40s. The onset of symptomatic Huntington’s disease in this age group is only 5%. There is a 50% chance that he might inherit the disease, and the best option here, is to get it tested. Only after the testing is done, a decision could be made. GINA prevents discrimination on the basis of medical information provided it would not affect the performance of job related tasks. In this case, Passenger safety is one of the major issues. In case any of the symptoms occur while flying, example twitching, it would result in harm for the passengers itself.
The job of one person can never be more important than the life of a hundreds. Moreover, only if a testing is done, speculations would end. Debby should ask Jeffrey to get the testing done, and depending on the result further actions would be taken. The officials would be the people to take the final decision about Jeffrey’s job depending on his medical information.
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