Act Utilitarianism, And Kant's Deontological Theory
When you apply ethical theories such as Ethical Egoism, Act Utilitarianism, Natural Law, and Kant’s Deontological theory to a specific subject, a person is able to determine what type of ethical principle they tend to favor. But by comparing each theory against one another towards a specific subject, we’re able to dive a little deeper by asking questions only we can answer, taking us on an internal journey of personal self-ethics. So we’ll apply these 4 theories to a subject. We’ll say I’m a doctor at a local hospital, and 5 prominent local citizens were in a major car accident leaving each person in need of an organ transplant. After the accident, Larry, a local homeless man, comes into the hospital with an infected toe, and I soon realize …show more content…
The decision doesn’t consider self-interests unless the self-interests align with the greatest outcome for the majority, which is determine through mathematical reasoning. If applying the Act Utilitarianism theory to a situation, first you must establish the ethical decision that needs to be made. Then, you’ll list all the possible actions that could be taken, as well as all the people who would be affected by those actions. You’ll use this information to create a chart that calculates the net ‘utility’ (good) for each option so you can see which option produces the best outcome for the most …show more content…
Using a scale, you’ll assign “happiness units” (Manias, et al, 2013) for each option based upon the affected people. After you’ve assigned happiness units to each option, you multiply that number by the determined amount of people the option affects coming up with a total number of happiness units for each option, which in turn is calculated into net utility to determine the highest amount of happiness units for each option. Using Act Utilitarianism towards ethical decisions allows a person to figure out the morally right decision based upon reason, logic, and common sense, where the deciding factor comes from the highest total of happiness units (Manias, et al,
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