For once - just this once - could they not have done the right thing? Could they not have shown that there are actually living, breathing human beings behind the corporation, who through conceptions such as decency, empathy, natural justice and self-conscience remind us that corporate values still reflect upon those who create them?
"Do to others what you would like to be done to you."
Taking orders from within the walls of corporate greed and pure pursuit of profit doesn't excuse the individual from his or her human existence and underlying accountability for actions taken in the name of shareholders.