Physician Assisted Suicide And Euthana's Ethical Dilemma

Among the French Revolution, Napoleonic era, and the American Civil War- which led to the abolishment of slavery- new ethical ideas were produced. Jeremy Bentham’s new ethical idea was the Principle of Utility. Bentham’s new idea stated that morality was all about making people as happy as humanly possible. Euthanasia is not considered moral within our societies standards. However, under the Principle of Utility, euthanasia could be considered moral if it provided true happiness. For instance, Sigmund Freud was suffering at the end of his life, and he wanted to end it. Dr. Schur, following Freud’s request and the Principle of Utility, put Freud out of his misery. Euthanasia put Freud out of his misery; therefore, under the Principle of Utility, it would not be considered immoral.

The pros are that marijuana calms people, and it has been studied to be not as harmful as cigarettes and alcohol. Unfortunately, the cons are that pot makes people unproductive, and that health wise it can become harmful for anyone that smokes marijuana more than “just casually.” Utilitarians see that the casual use of marijuana causes happiness, so they tend to be for the legalization of marijuana. Under the Christian view, technically, people can treat non-human animals anyway they like, because animals do not have souls. However, Utilitarians would not agree with this- if something can suffer- the thing can detect a difference between happiness and unhappiness. If experiments done on animals do not cause them happiness, under Utilitarian view, they would be considered immoral. Furthermore, if humans are going to eat non-human animals, it can only be right if the non-human animals are treated right, up until they are