Kantian and Utilitarian Essay Example for Free

Kantian and Utilitarian Essay Kant believed in an absolute moral law that he called the Categorical Imperative. It is this imperative that determines our duty. (2) Two formulations of this imperative can be used to determine the morally correct action that Alistair should choose. The first formulation, The Formula of Universal Law: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law [of nature]. (2) Alistair has two possible maxims to act upon. These maxims, if it were universally applicable, are: â€Å"Anyone may lie in order to promote increasing human welfare† and â€Å"Everyone always tells the truth†. The first maxim is contradictory. If people had the option to lie, it negates the system of trust on which the world is built. When, for example, I put my money in the bank, I trust them to keep it safe. If the first maxim was universally accepted, I could not trust without reservation that the bank would keep my money safe because they would be able to give my money away if they felt it would increase the welfare of those less fortunate. If this was the case, there would be widespread mistrust and, ironically, it would have a negative impact on human welfare. The second maxim is universally applicable and is thus, according to Kant, the maxim on which to act upon. The second formulation, The Formula of the End in Itself: â€Å"So act as to treat humanity, both in your own person, and in the person of every other, always at the same time as an end, never simply as a means. †(2) If Alistair were to withhold the truth about the bribery, he denies the rationality of the board and denies that there is any rational action for them to perform. He denies them the option to rationally make a decision on what to do about the situation. In doing this he is using the board merely as a means to ensure the delivery of the medicine. According to Kant, for Alistair to use the board as a means in themselves, he would have to tell the truth. According to Kant’s theory, the action of ignoring the bribe fails the first and second formulation of the Categorical Imperative, thus the right thing to do would be to tell the truth to the board of directors. Utalitarian Theory Looking back at the case study it is clear that, on the one hand, people are receiving inexpensive kits of medicine, the drivers don’t get shot and the reputation of the relief organisation and the director is still intact. On the other hand, the board doesn’t know about the bribery, thus the unethical activity cannot be put to a stop. Utilitarianism is a theory based on consequences, not the action leading to the consequence. This theory holds that we should choose those actions that would result in the greatest amount of good in the interest of the greatest number of people affected by our actions. 1)(4) The â€Å"good† is anything that, directly or indirectly, brings happiness or pleasure. (4) The consequences of each particular action is considered to determine which outcome will best serve the greater good. (3) Act Utilitarianism prescribes that every situation be evaluated independently. The action that leads to the greatest net outcome of utility is then c onsidered to be the correct choice. According to this theory, Alistair should choose the action that will maximise happiness and minimise unhappiness. Alistair has two possible choices with two different consequences. The first is that Alistair tells the truth about the bribery. The possible outcome of his choice are the following: the drivers stop receiving cash and get shot, the contract is terminated and the less fortunate stop receiving their medicine, the director in charge of the contract is fired, and the relief organisation suffers great embarrassment. These are all negative effects and cause great unhappiness. On the other hand, the happiness of the board is increased because they can put a stop to more unethical activity. The second choice that Alistair has to consider is to keep silent and overlook the bribe. This would lead to the situation staying the same (as stated in the case study) and would secure the happiness of the greater good which include: the director, the relief organisation, the drivers and the people receiving the medicine. The board of directors would not know about the bribe, so there would be no unhappiness to consider. Considering the consequences of both actions, the happiness of the greater good is maximised when Alistair keeps silent.

Character Monologe of John Yosarian :: essays research papers fc

Hello my name is John Yossarian, I am a captain in my squadron of pilots that runs bombing missions during this retched war. All my life I’ve hated war I think it’s utterly pointless, men losing their lives only to ensure their freedom.. I do not know why I am being forced to fight, but the way I look at it is ‘lets just get it over with’, this type of attitude helps me try to complete my missions as soon as possible. While that may sound like an easy task the truth is it isn’t, the main reason why is because of my damn colonel†¦ Catchcart is his name and he keeps â€Å"lifting the bar† on the number of missions required by us before we can be sent home. At first I didn’t even want to have to fight, so I tried all means to get out of this blasted battle. I even said that I had a pin in my liver and was sent to the hospital, but that turned out to be more trouble then it was worth. After being discharged from the small Italian facility I could only seem to wonder why no one else saw the pointlessness of all these â€Å"heroes† fighting an endless massacre, the question never could seem to leave my mind†¦ I guess its just one of those questions that has no real answer. Some of the men in my squad are Milo Minderbinder, who had was a leader of a underground black market and the head of the mess hall, Hungry Joe, well what can I say about Joe†¦ he used to be a photographer for Life magazine and he has an obsession with naked women, quite the oddball if you ask me. McWatt, he was always a happy one, rarely caught him without a smile on his face. Clevinger, rest his poor soul, he was always an optimistic, always had a question for everything and he was usually very opinionated. You know, every man has his own limits in life, and I’ve just about reached mine with all of these missions, this war has nothing more to offer me and I nothing to offer it. So I refused to fly any more missions. I am now on the streets of Rome, but my â€Å"freedom† was short lived, an officer arrested me for not having a pass.

Assisted Suicide Essay

If you’re suffering from excruciating pain and there’s no hope you will recover and doctors are keeping you alive for as long as you can take for no reason, would you want them to â€Å"pull the plug†? Assisted suicide is mostly legal in 16 countries. In the U.S. assisted suicide is legal in Washington, Oregon, Vermont and Montana does not specifically address physician-assisted suicide but have no laws against it and physicians who practice it are shielded from prosecution. Assisted suicide is a controversy because too many people it’s against their religion. Assisted suicide is considered to be inhumane to some people because some people say that animals are put down, not human beings. Also some believe that some people might take advantage of assisted suicide. It’s a choice that some people might want to take if they’re suffering. Most of the people that are against assisted suicide say it’s because it’s against their religio n. Others believe it is inhumane and say it violates a fundamental tenet of medicine by contradicting the doctor’s role as a healer to end a person’s life (murder) even if they are suffering. Assisted suicide should be legal everywhere because if you do not believe in it then you don’t have to choose that option, but people that believe in it should be able to choose. Many physicians believe assisted suicide should be legal and terminally ill patients should have the choice to end their suffering. If you have the right to live, shouldn’t you have the right to die? If you have the right to live, shouldn’t you have the right to die? â€Å"When such people ask for assistance in exercising their right to die, their wishes should be respected† This quote from Claire Andre (page 1) is stating that someone who is asking to end their suffering from a terminal illness/disease that their wish should be honored and respected. Claire is trying to prove that assisted suicide should be respected if one has the desires to end their  life but only from a terminally illness/disease. She is stating that it’s actually inhumane to keep someone alive as long as possible through medical treatment. If the doctors know that a patient won’t recover they should be able to ask the patient if they want the option of getting a high dose of medicine that will end their suffering. Most people who are against assisted suicide have no reason besides that it’s against their religion because it’s â€Å"technically† suicide. Others say that it’s inhumane and it’s â€Å"technically† murder because you’re taking someone’s life. Also some people think that some people that are having family issues or people who are in debt might try to take advantage of assisted suicide. Dr. Ann McPherson, a 64-year-old GP from Oxford, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. After 14 years of being diagnosed she now has terminal pancreatic cancer and secondary cancer in her lungs. She is only taking her morphine and she does not receive cancer treatment anymore. â€Å"Assisted dying is something I have considered. I have no idea if I want it, that depends on how my dying goes. But I want it to be there.† â€Å"I feel very strongly that palliative care should include assisted dying, I call it assisted dying, not assisted su icide, because suicide has connotations of something bad, running away. I think the law is inhuman as it stands and I think the  ­public is ahead of the lawmakers on this.† (Page 1) she believes that making it illegal to have a physician end ones suffering is inhumane and should be reconsidered. Also no one would be able to take advantage of assisted suicide because there are protocols and you have to be terminally ill. To those who believe that assisted suicide â€Å"technically† suicide and against their religion are wrong. How can it be inhumane if it’s their choice to end their own suffering? If God loved you he wouldn’t want you to suffer through terminally illnesses/ diseases he would want you to be able to end your suffering. Dr. Ann McPherson calls it assisted dying because she believes that suicide is just as excuse to end your problems or run away. Maybe some people are just against assisted suicide because of the name and haven’t looked into it. Maybe if they used the name â€Å"Euthanasia† or â€Å"Assisted dying† more often people might look at it different. Dr. Ann McPherson also has a husband, children, and grandchildren. She states that she wants her family to be there for her and she said â€Å"I don’t want to go to  Zurich, to some anonymous facility; I would want to do it in my own bed. I have a husband, three children and five grandchildren and I would like them to be there if that is the route I go down, though I don’t want them to be directly involved. A professional should be able to do that.† (Page 2). She doesn’t want her family to take part in her death but if she was able to choose that path she would want her family to be there. Also if someone asked a physician to help them assist suicide and they were not terminally ill but they had life problems, they should and would be turned away. Assisted suicide is a way out of suffering from illness and diseases not life issues. There have been only 5 countries to fully legalize assisted suicide and only 3 states (soon to be 4) in the United States. The other 11 countries have no law against suicide/ assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is starting to appear in many court cases around the world and is starting to be considered worldwide. Some countries have no laws about assisting a suicide or suicide itself but do have laws like â€Å"failure to assist a person in danger†, â€Å"an assisted with manslaughter†, â€Å"accessory to murder†, and even â€Å"murder† is brought up in cases that involves someone assisting someone in suicide. While Oregon, Washington State, Vermont and Montana permit physician-assisted suicide, Montana’s Supreme Court determined that assisted suicide is a medical treatment. â€Å"We find no indication in Montana laws that physician aid in dying provided to terminally ill, mentally competent adult patients is against public policy† and therefor e, the physician who assists is shielded from criminal liability by the patient’s consent.†(Page 1) The Montana Supreme Court states that physicians may assist patients in ending their lives with a high dosage of legal drugs. â€Å"The state’s living-will law provides the basis for the practice† said by the Montana Supreme Court (page 1). Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, and the United States (Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and Montana) have legalized assisted suicide. More countries are starting to move toward legalizing assisted suicide/ euthanasia. In 1997 Colombia’s Supreme Court ruled that penalties/ criminal offenses for mercy killing should be removed. They haven’t legalized assisted suicide but are leading towards it. In the United Kingdom a man named Martin who is 46 years old suffered from a brainstem stroke. He is completely paralyzed everywhere except for his eyelids. He has a computer in which he stares at 24/7, that recognizes one letter at a time as Martin blinks and stares at it. He uses his eyes to spell out his desires, frustrations and anger on his computer. He wants to go to court for an assurance that any professional person/ physician who helps him to die/†pull the plug† will not be prosecuted. The doctors said that he could live for years in his state and even his wife is trying to help him fight for the right to die. He describes his life as â€Å"S-H-I-T† and he just wants to die (page 1). The United Kingdom’s laws are suicide is not a crime but assisting a suicide is. Martin is fighting for his right to die and the United Kingdom is debating it. This shows that more and more countries are starting to consider legalizing assisted suicide and they are real izing that in some situations it should be allowed. Assisted suicide should be legalized, allowed, and accepted everywhere .More and more countries are legalizing assisted suicide every year. There should be a choice for someone who is terminally ill and suffering to end their life without anyone being prosecuted. If you don’t believe in assisted suicide then you don’t have to choose that option. A person who is suffering from a terminal illness/disease should have the right to die, no doubt. If you believe it’s inhumane to end ones suffering how is it not inhumane to keep someone who is suffering alive by a machine keeping them alive. If suicide is against your religion then you don’t have to choose assisted suicide, but would God really want you to suffer, no. Also if the name â€Å"assisted suicide† is the reason you’re against it, call it euthanasia. If you believe that it violates a fundamental tenet of medicine by contradicting the doctor’s role as a healer to end a person’ s life (murder) even if they are suffering, you are most definitely wrong. It’s inhumane to keep someone alive who is suffering and have asked you to end their suffering by using an overdose of medicine to make their passing painless and quick. If you have the right to live, shouldn’t you have the right to die? The answer is yes because why/how can it be a crime to commit suicide or assist suicide by a physician? How can you possibly be punished and also why should a Judge be able decide whether you live or not? Assisted suicide  should be legal and not have to have a Judge decide your life. Some people might say its â€Å"technically† suicide and some people might say its â€Å"technically† murder. How on earth is it either of those? First off you are just trying to end your suffering if you choose assisted suicide and a physician assisting a patient’s suicide/death isn’t (should not be considered) murder. The physician is just helping them ease away their suffering. All around the world countries are debating wh ether or not to legalize assisted suicide. More countries every year are legalizing it and already 4 states of the United States have approved it. In some countries if you assist a suicide you could be charged from â€Å"failure to assist someone in danger† to â€Å"murder†. Most people who have been charged with assisting a suicide were let off. The charges were acquitted but not after fighting them in court. Learning more about assisted suicide and suicide in general would give more people more knowledge about assisted suicide and why it should be legalized. Most people were taught very young that killing yourself/someone is very bad so every time the topic about assisted suicide by physician comes up they say it’s wrong to kill yourself and it’s wrong to kill someone. They do not have the slightest clue that assisted suicide is helping suffering people and their families watch them suffer. It would bring peace to the person who is suffering and to their family to know that their suffering has ended. So shouldn’t we have the right to die, if we also have the right to live? If you are suffering from a terminally illness/disease or terrible accident where you can no longer eat, clean, use the bathroom, change clothes, and even adjust yourself wouldn’t you want the option of assisted suicide.

Prevalence Of Overweight And Obesity - 935 Words

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children is increasing worldwide at an alarming rate in both developing and developed countries.1 Obesity is associated with a heterogeneity of metabolic abnormalities, e.g., dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and hypertension that may provide a plausible biologic link between obesity and the increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Metabolic syndrome (MS) has been defined as a cluster of risk factors for atherosclerosis that include insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity and often hypertension. The clustering of these risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is referred to as (MS).2,3 Patients with MS are at increased risk of cardiovascular†¦show more content†¦Patients and methods A total of 60 obese children and adolescents aged 8–18 years; 38 boys and 22 girls were enrolled from attendants of pediatric genetic and endocrinology unit and pediatric outpatient clinic of Menoufia University Hospitals, Egypt. Some female adolescents especially from rural areas refuse to share in our study that is why we have higher male: female ratio in our sample of patients 1.7:1. We included in our study both children and adolescents to have a relatively larger sample of patients. Written consent had been taken from every child included in the study or their participant parents. While collecting data, those who had secondary or known genetic causes of obesity were excluded. Children and adolescents were assessed carefully in terms of family history, blood pressure, and skin findings as acanthosis nigricans. Anthropometric assessments All anthropometric measurements were taken with stress on body height and weight that were measured in light clothes using a portable stadiometer. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight divided by the square of the height (kg/m2). Obesity was definedShow MoreRelatedPrevalence Of Overweight And Obesity Essay1249 Words   |  5 PagesThe aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of overweight/obesity among parents of children entering childhood obesity treatment and to evaluate changes in the parents’ weight during their child’s treatment (Trier, 2016). The study included the parents of 1,125 children and adolescents (aged 3-22) who were enrolled in a children obesity treatment program. They began by taking the heights and weights of the children and the BMI scores were calculated. After 2.5 years of treatment, theRead MoreObesity Prevalence Of Overweight And Obesity Essay2083 Words   |  9 Pagesdecades, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased in the United States of America. Many of the results related to obesity considered to be an adult disease in the past, now obesity also affects young peoples body healthy. In children and adolescents, obesity increases the risk o f adult obesity with complications. For example, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease are well known. Obesity in children and adolescents will be a prevalent and costly disease. Overweight and obesity are highlyRead MoreThe Prevalence Of Overweight / Obesity1616 Words   |  7 PagesStatement: POPULATION/PATIENT PROBLEM: Both researchers studied the incidence of overweight/obesity in African-American children. One related it to the low socioeconomic status of the caregivers (SEP) and this study/research was conducted in Pitt County, North Carolina. The other research, four childhood obesity perceptions among African-American caregivers in a rural area Georgia community relates overweight/obesity on the parents’ level of education, income, eating habits and lack of physical activitiesRead MoreThe Prevalence Of Overweight And Obesity1910 Words   |  8 PagesAbstract: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in America has increased and with it so has the effort find ways to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. Different diets with varying macronutrient contents are being investigated as to find out which are most effective for weight maintenance. This study sought out to demonstrate that the addition of plant-derived saturated fats high in medium chain fatty acids can aid in weight management in mammals. Twenty-four mice were fed isocaloric dietsRead MoreDietary Factors That Affect Obesity Essay1222 Words   |  5 Pagescontribute to obesity in children. The major factors are increased consumption of calorie-dense foods, saturated fats, and sugar in combination with sedentary behavior 8. Consumption of refined grains and sugar-sweetened beverages have lead to increases in unhealthy eating habits resulting in the rise of obesity 4. These sugar-sweetened drinks are also associated with increasing BMI 11. The focus of this synthesis is the importance of physical activity in treating individuals who are overweight and obeseRead MoreThe Prevalence of Obesity and Its Associated Factors Essay606 Words   |  3 PagesPrevalence of obesity and its associated factors It is only recently that highly well-known health institutions such as the US Federal health Department and World Health Organization have officially declared obesity as an illness. It is a serious, multifactorial disease. Obesity takes place when body is not able to metabolize the food and this results in energy excessiveness stored as body fat, In general, an obese is 20 percent or above heavier than his/her normal weight. There has been a considerableRead MoreEssay on Childhood Obesity1599 Words   |  7 PagesChildhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. The problem is global and is steadily affecting many low- and middle-income families particularly in the United States. The socioeconomic status of these families contributes to the childhood obesity epidemic. Summary of Article 1 The article, â€Å"Beliefs about the Role of Parenting in Feeding and Childhood Obesity among Mothers of Lower Socioeconomic Status† is a study that was conducted by Alison KalinowskiRead MoreChildren And Obesity783 Words   |  4 Pagesare overweight. Half of this population is considered to be obese. The rates of obesity, however, vary by age. 8 percent of children between 2 and 5 are obese. Among those between 6 and 11, 18 percent of these children are obese (Segal, Rayburn, Alejandra, 2016). Finally, 21 percent of those 12 and 19 years are obese. As mentioned before, obesity among children between 2 and 5 are decreasing. But those among age groups 11 and 19 are increasing. This may explain the constant rate of obesity amongRead MoreShould Not Be A Social Norm?1380 Words   |  6 PagesShould not being obesity How many obese individuals do you see a day on the street? How do you think if overweight consider be a petty group as our future social norm? There are many serious health issues in our society. Today, obesity is one of the most popular diseases in America. Being overweight is usually a warning sign that people could be on their way to becoming obesity. According to Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention report, the most recent national data shows moreRead MoreThe Field Of Psychosocial Epidemiology Essay1369 Words   |  6 Pagesvariables associated with a chronic health condition. Obesity is a chronic health condition characterized by presence of excess of body fat. Obesity is measured by using Body Mass Index (BMI) in children 2 years of age and older. The BMI is calculated by the body weight (in kilograms) divided by the height squared in meters. In adults, a BMI between 25 and 30 kg/m2 is regarded as overweight and a BMI greater or equal to 30 kg/m2 is regarded as obese. Obesity in adults is subcategorized as class I (BMI ≠¥30