Ethical Issues In The Movie 'Philadelphia'

In the film, Philadelphia, director Jonathan Demme tells the story of Andrew Beckett a lawyer with a prestigious firm in Philadelphia. Beckett is a homosexual and has AIDS, he had been trying to keep both of these details from the partners at the firm. When Beckett was brought in to, managing partner, Charles Wheeler’s office for the revelation that he would be handling the firm’s newest and most important case one of the other partners noticed a bruise on Beckett’s forehead. As his illness progresses Beckett spends less time at the office while there are other people there, preferring to work at night or from home. Working after hours to meet a deadline Beckett left some documents on his desk, as the cutoff time approached his documents could not be found…they eventually turned up just prior to the deadline. Based on this minor infraction, possibly deliberately perpetrated by others, the partners fired Beckett. This film is primarily about the wrongful termination suit that Beckett brings against his former employer. The firm contends the dismissal was based on job performance, Beckett counters that it was based on the fact that Beckett is a homosexual and has AIDS. This paper will look at a number of important ethical questions to include; the ethical dilemma that the managers of the firm faced, was Beckett’s firing from the firm justified and was Beckett’s concealment of his illness relevant …show more content…
The managers were ignorant of the particulars of AIDS and were therefore scared to have someone with AIDS working for them. The movie also portrays a serious homophobia on the part of the law firm. Due to the fact that this was somewhat early in the AIDS epidemic timeline, it is possible that the managers had no idea how to deal with it and thought firing Beckett was an easy way out. Their obvious distaste for Beckett’s lifestyle comes out in the