Philosophy
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Utilitarianism.pptxUtilitarianism
Ethical Theories, Moral Principles, and Medical Decisions
Classical Utilitarians:
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
Ethical Theories
Ethical Theories
Ethical theories attempt to articulate and justify principles that can be employed as guides for making moral decisions and as standards for the evaluation of actions and policies.
Defines duties and obligations
Explanations and justifications of actions
Ethical Theories
Some Moral Questions
Is it right for a woman to have an abortion for any reason?
Do people have a right to die?
Does everyone have a right to medical care?
Should physicians ever lie to their patients?
Should people suffering from a genetic disease be allowed to have children?
Can parents agree to allow their children to be used as experimental subjects?
Ethical Theories
When Would These Questions Matter?
When we are the decision makers.
When we must advise those who make the decisions.
When we are on the receiving end of the decisions.
Ethical Theories
Philosophers in the Spotlight
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
They did not produce identical theory but, both their versions have come to be spoken of as “classical utilitarianism.”
Ethical Theories
Utilitarian Principles
Principle of Utility: “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”
Greatest Happiness Principle: “Those actions are right that produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.”
Ethical Theories
But How To Define Happiness?
Bentham
Pleasure of any kind
Mill
Certain pleasures are higher than others
Intellectual versus physical
Ethical Theories
Pluralistic Conception
Some more recent formulations of utilitarianism have rejected the notion that happiness, no matter how defined, is the sole intrinsic good that actions or polices must promote.
Knowledge, beauty, love, friendship, liberty, and health.
Ethical Theories
Teleology
Since utilitarianism determines the rightness of actions in terms of their tendency to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number, it is considered to be a teleological (goal-directed) ethical theory.
Ethical Theories
Consequentialism
The principle focuses attention on the consequences of actions, rather than upon some feature of the actions themselves. The “utility” or “usefulness” of an action is determined by the extent to which it produces happiness. Thus, no action is in itself right or wrong. Nor is an action right or wrong by virtue of the actor’s hopes, intentions, or past actions.
Ethical Theories
Consequentialism
The position that the morality of an action is determined by its nonmoral consequences.
If the consequences are good, the act is right. If they’re bad, the act is wrong.
Ethical Theories
Consequentialism
Consequentialists consider the ratio of good to evil that an action produces. The right action is the one that produces or will probably produce as great a ratio of good to evil as any other action.
How much good can come out of this action (compared to alternative courses of actions) for how many people?
Act Utilitarianism
Judges the rightness or wrongness of an action on a case-by-case basis (according to the utilitarian principle, of course).
What will be the consequences of my action not only for myself but also for everyone else affected by my action?
Act Utilitarianism
Does the theory imply that any sexual activity is morally permissible if it produces a greater balance of pleasure over pain than any other alternative?
Thought Experiment
Richard Taylor
Do the pleasures of adultery justify lying to one’s spouse to maintain the affair?
That is, if revealing the affair to one’s spouse will injure the spouse and the marriage relationship, then it seems that one should conceal the affair.
Cf. Ignorance is bliss?
Criticisms
Strict application of the view would countenance actions we intuitively reject as wrong.
Hypothetical: Judge in small town sentencing an innocent person to death.
Utilitarianism would seem to require the judge to sentence the accused man to death, although she know he’s innocent.
Rule Utilitarianism
Uses the utilitarian principle to judge moral rules and not individual actions.
Examples:
“We should never punish people for something they didn’t do.”
“We should always tell the truth.”
“Stealing is never morally justified.”
Paul Ramsey Institute
Center for Bioethics and Culture
Adopting a rule-utilitarian ethic, they argue that permissive moral doctrines that allow adultery, divorce, and homosexuality are harmful to society and so such activities are wrong.
Criticisms
It is far from clear how to apply the principle to rules.
Rules that allow for exceptions seem better than those that don’t, but making exceptions threatens to reduce rule utilitarianism to act utilitarianism.
How can we be sure that the predicted consequences will actually occur?
Ethical Theories
Case Study
Suppose a child is born with severe impairments. The child has an open spine, severe brain damage, and dysfunctional kidneys. What should be done? (Ignore the question of who should decide.)
Ethical Theories
Consider the Consequences of Possible Courses of Actions
Give the child only the ordinary treatment that would be given to a normal child.
Give the child special treatment for its problems.
Give the child no treatment—allow it to die, in effect.
Put the child to death in a painless way.
Ethical Theories
Each Case is Considered Individually
How impaired is the child?
How good are its chances of living an acceptable life?
What is the character and financial status of the family?
What is the quality of life, in the eyes of the child?
Ethical Theories
Criticisms
There is no way to be sure that we’ve made the right decision. We are sure to be ignorant of much relevant information.
The consequences might be different from what we originally anticipated.
Response: Acting morally doesn’t mean being omniscient. We need to make a reasonable effort to get relevant information, and we can usually predict the probable consequences of our actions.
Ethical Theories
Criticisms
Utilitarianism is unable to account for obligations engendered by such actions as promising and pledging, for such actions involve something other than consequences.
E.g., Surgeon promises a patient that only she will perform the operation.
Ethical Theories
Criticisms
The pleasures of adultery justify lying to one’s spouse to maintain the affair.
That is, if revealing the affair to one’s spouse will injure the spouse and the marriage relationships, then one should conceal the affair.
Richard Taylor
Ethical Theories
Case Study
Cadavers in Car Crash Testings
Ethical Theories
Cadavers
Heidelberg University (in Germany) used more than two hundred corpses, including those of eight children, in automobile crash tests. The university claimed it received relatives’ permission.
Ethical Theories
Cadavers
There was an immediate outcry when the tests were made public.
“Even the dead possess human dignity. This research should be done with mannequins.”
(Rudolph Hammerschmitd, spokesman for the Roman Catholic German Bishops’ Conference)
Ethical Theories
Cadavers
German law permits the use of cadavers for research if relatives grant permission. In the crash tests, the bodies are strapped into cars that are smashed into other cars, walls, and barriers. The impact on humans is measured with cameras and electronic sensors.
Ethical Theories
Cadavers
The head of Heidelberg’s forensic pathology department claimed that the tests are justified because they save lives, including those of children.
Ethical Theories
Center for Auto Safety (Washington D.C.)
(1) Prior consent by the deceased person,
(2) Informed consent of the family, and
(3) Assurance that the data sought by the tests cannot be gained from using dummies.
Ethical Theories
Wayne State University
Bodies donated for medical research and education—dressed in leotards and hoods to protect their identities—have sensors implanted and are then hit or thrown over cars at mock intersections.
Ethical Theories
Wayne State University
Or they’re cracked in the head, chest and other parts with a 50-pound, six-inch pendulum the approximate size of a steering-wheel hub.
Ethical Theories
Wayne State University
Albert King, the director of Wayne State’s Bioengineering Center, says they go through about twenty bodies a year.
Unfortunately, corpses are becoming increasingly scarce. Researchers need cadavers younger than sixty-five because they represent the typical driving public.
Ethical Theories
Cadavers
These tests have resulted in better-designed seat belts, air bags, windshields, and doors. All of these safety features, in turn, help save more lives. So the end justifies the means.
Cf. Body Worlds / Body Farm
Ethical Theories
Harm Principle
It is morally permissible for me to do anything that doesn’t harm you.
Live and let live—so long as you don’t harm others.
But what kind of harm? Physical, economic, emotional, etc.?
Harm Principle
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”
Ethical Theories
Ethical Theories
Implications of the Harm Principle
No Paternalistic Laws
Seat belts
Helmets
Alcohol, smoking, drugs, tobacco
Snack foods
Ethical Theories
Moral Restrictions
No Unnecessary Moral Restrictions
Pornography (e.g., magazines, Internet)
Prostitution
Premarital sex
Extramarital sex (e.g., swinging)
Suicide, euthanasia
Homosexuality
