Moral Theory And Utilitarianism Essay

Moral Theory and Utilitarianism

Moral theory and utilitarianism have a lot in common with each other and J. S. Mill’s explains how these two work separately and together. There are different theories out there about morals and utilitarianism and some do not agree with Mill on his theories. This paper will talk about an experiment dilemma using utilitarian perspectives, how it defends utilitarianism, and how utilitarianism is an adequate moral theory for the thought experiment.

A thought experiment can be an interesting thing to think about and what the consequences may be. The most important thought is if the situation is morally right or wrong and if utilitarianism plays a part in it. There comes a time when certain situations may arise and a person needs to make a decision, let’s say that a woman that pregnant and is due to have her baby in about five weeks. She starts to not feel well and goes to the emergency room where the doctors tell her they need to take the baby now due to complications. The doctors inform her and her husband that if they do not take the baby the mother could die; however, the baby could die either way. They agree and the baby dies, however, the mother loses a lot of blood and they have to rush her into surgery. When

it comes to a decision like this, sometimes the moral decision would be to save the mother and hope the baby survives especially if the parents have a toddler at home waiting. Utilitarianism describes this moral theory because it is about what is best for everyone involved at the time of the dilemma. “Therefore, you must sometimes sacrifice your own desires for the will of the majority because that will result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people” (GCU, M. 5 Lecture). As stated in the above dilemma, the parents chose to take the chance and save the mother with hopes that the baby would survive.
The thought experiment defends utilitarianism because it was about what would make everyone involved happy compared to losing both the mother and the baby leaving a husband without a wife and another son without his mother. “When deciding to act morally, one must calculate who is affected by one’s actions and how much they will be affected (both qualitatively and quantitatively)” (Clark & Poortenga, 2003, p. 87). This thought experiment defends utilitarianism in the way that the choice made is determined by how and who all will be affected by the decision. The moral theory is that why to take the risk of losing both the mother and baby when they can save the mother and hope for the best for the baby to survive.
Utilitarianism is an adequate moral theory based on this thought experiment because of how sometimes a person may experience pain in order to produce pleasure.

The husband wanted to save his wife and hope for the best for his unborn son and he knew that he may experience the pain of losing a child, however, he would have the pleasure of happiness of saving his wife. “Since utilitarianism has a strongly practical element, the question of how to produce pleasure instead of pain becomes quickly mired in the quagmire of difficult ethical options” (Robinson, 2015, p. 34-35). This shows that although the ethical option was difficult for the husband to make, he had to make the most morally and ethical decision for all

involved.
When we think of moral, ethical, and utilitarianism, we think of what is best for everyone that may be involved in the situation. Sometimes, the outcome may not be a good outcome, however, we have to believe that the decisions we make on a day to day basis are the most ethical and moral decision one can make. As stated, this paper talked about an experiment dilemma and how utilitarian might address the dilemma, how it defends utilitarianism, and that utilitarianism is an adequate moral theory based on the thought experiment.