Kantianism's Objectification To Criticize Assisted Suicide

The ethical theory of utilitarianism judges an action to maximize happiness and diminish pain for those who are affected or involved. Everything that we do, or cause, will affect the outcome and we should think of how our actions and judgments can be carried out to promote happiness for us and those around us. One of the main ideas of utilitarianism is consequentialism, meaning to maximize pleasure through the consequences of our actions. Another important concept of utilitarianism is impartiality, that everyone’s happiness is equally the same. This accounts for everyone’s happiness that is involved in the situation, but it must maximize the most pleasure overall. This then brings to another important aspect of utilitarianism, which is hedonism.

Kant proposes his theory to be strict and law binding, but he then suggested exceptions for certain rules, depending on certain circumstances. Kant provides us a rule that we must all follow, but later that rule can change. For example, we can use people as a means if we are honest about our intentions. Yet, the Formula of Humanity denies we should use people as a means at all because we are all rational. If he can propose to alter a rule like this, what is it to say he can also alter any rule just because he had said so? This leaves room for some following up unanswered questions to what exactly is the moral “law” when the law itself can also be flexible? Kantianism seems to be flexible for different uses and for various objectives without a concrete boundary. Utilitarianism has only one objective and that’s to promote the most happiness from a single outcome. Utilitarianism provides more clarity and a convincing theory directly to this issue. Since assisted suicide is a sensitive subject, I think it is best to use utilitarianism because it also accounts for the people who are involved or affected by the issue. I believe this is important because any tragedy, like a death that occurs in the family, can affect a person’s well-being. A death can alter how a person would normally function and respond to society and result in a state of depression, etc. Therefore, the relative that’s affected by the death will have trouble grieving. If we didn’t consider the people around us, imagine how the world would be. The world would be inconsiderate, and people will be selfish. This would also mean that hurting people intentionally would be morally acceptable. Allowing an ethical theory like utilitarianism helps us reflect upon ourselves and understand that what we do can potentially affect others and utilitarianism allow us to