The city of Atlantis in South East San Antonio is facing the ethical dilemma of deciding how to offer the emergency services to the people. Emergency services are not rival and or excludable. The reading of “Firefighters Watch as Home Burns to the Ground” the firefighters failed to provide their services when a home was burning to the ground. Their position was because the home owner did not pay the money to the firehouse and when they needed the service they were willing to pay. The firefighter have an ethical responsibility to protect their community. The police and ambulance have the same ethical role. The firefighters should have offered the services and collected their dues after they aided in putting out the fire. Atlantis should provide the services and the cost should come out of the city tax base. The people are the ones who are paying the city taxes so they are the ones who are paying for the emergency services.
The emergency service is a public good. The people in any city depend on the firefighters, police and ambulance to help them if they have a problem. Most of the time when people call for emergency services it is something that they cannot handle on their own and it can be a matter of life and death. The ethical position of emergency services is to protect and serve the people who live in their community. The emergency services are a common good. It benefits the interest of all who live in the city of Atlantis. The oath to protect and serve from all emergency services takes away the ethical dilemmas that could exist. Regardless if an individual pays a fee there should never be a time when firefighters, police, or ambulances sit back and watch someone in need and not do their part to help.