Analysis Of Rawls's Theory Of Justice

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In the Neonatal Unit of Halifax Hospital, a set of twins were born that were joined at their midsection. These boys could not be separated due to the positioning of the organs and the infants only having one liver and one kidney. In addition, these infants were also deformed and had severe brain damage. The father, a doctor of internal medicine, and the obstetrician were seen by the nurses sitting in the waiting room talking seriously. After the conversation the obstetrician placed an order in the chart to not give the infants water or food. This order was verified, but one of the nurses, Irene went against these orders and fed the infants. At some point, Family Welfare was contacted anonymously and they made the infants temporary wards of …show more content…

Rawls provided us with framework that outlines the principle of justice. Rawls starts his theory by describing “the original position” (Munson, 2012, p. 881) and the “veil of ignorance” (Munson, 2012, p. 881) stating that a group of people with different levels of intelligence, different abilities and with different talents that are unaware of their sex, race, position in society, and more cannot gain advantage over others since they do not know the circumstance of others or themselves. This leads to justice being described as fairness. Rawls has two principles, the liberty principle and the distribution principle. The liberty principle states that everyone has equal rights to liberty as long as it does not encroach upon the liberty of others. The distribution principle states that social goods are to be distributed in a way that benefits the least advantaged the most and allows offices and positions to be held by anyone under equal opportunity. Under the liberty principle, this case may be found to be unjust. These infants are unable to make decisions on their own, but they still have basic liberties. By ordering for the infants to not be feed or given water, the father and doctors are encroaching upon the basic liberties of the infants. But Rawls could argue that we have duties to those that cannot make decisions for

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