Question

How would someone respond to this question using the ethical principles using a rule utilitarian Scenario #5 Consider the following five cases. Harvey Shick of Tyler, Texas, on June 1, 1983, shot his wife in the head twice with a .22-caliber pistol. Marie Shick had suffered from severe arteriosclerosis since the late 1970s and suffered extreme pain in her lower legs. The couple had been happily married for forty-five years. Although Mr. Shick was charged with murder, the charges were dismissed by the state district court judge. "I found nothing would be gained in this case by further punishing this man,? Judge Donald Carroll said. He was distressed at the sickness, and additional treatment would have brought only a precarious and burdensome prolonging of life. Mrs. Shick's family supported the action. On September 14, 1984, Thomas Engel, a registered nurse, removed the respirator from Joesph Dohr, a seventy-eight-year-old stroke patient at St. Michael hospital in Milwaukee. Mr. Engel said Mr. Dohr?s family asked that treatment be stopped. His physician said he had refused the request because he believed Mr. Dohr?s death was imminent. Mr. Engel was charged with practicing medicine without a license. He pleaded guilty and received a twenty-month suspended sentence. On August 8, 1985, seventy-nine-year-old Abel Montigny walked into the intensive-care unit of Worchester Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, and shot his wife in the head. He then shot himself. Both died from the injuries. Mrs. Leona Montigny, seventy-six, had been in the hospital months. She suffered from serious stomach and blood disorders and was recovering from surgery. Her illnesses were considered treatable, and she was in no immediate danger of death from them. Roswell Gilbert, a seventy-five-year-old retired engineer, was convicted in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on May 9, 1985, for killing his incurably ill seventy-three-year old wife. The couple had been married fifty-one years. Emily Gilbert had a debilitating bone disease and Alzheimer?s disease; as a consequence, she suffered both severe pain and mental disorientation. According to a witness, on the day of the killing Mrs. Gilbert had said to her husband ?I?m in pain. I want to die.? Mr. Gilbert said later, ?Who?s that somebody but me? I guess I got cold as ice. I took the gun off the shelf, put a bullet in it and shot her...' Mr. Gilbert was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison with no chance of parole. Gilbert lost a chance for clemency when two of thee members of the Florida Cabinet rejected the governor?s recommendation that he be freed while the case was appealed...But in August 1990, in failing health, Gilbert was finally freed on probation. He died on September 4, 1994. Walter Zygmaniak killed his brother Lester with a sawed off shotgun in hospital in NJ. His brother had been injured in an accident and was paralyzed from his neck down for life. His brother begged him to end his life. He did not want his wife and children burdened by his existence. After several days without sleep and after much thought and prayer Walter entered his brother's room and asked him again if he wanted to die. His brother said yes. Walter assembled the gun and then they said a prayer and Walter shot and killed his brother. Were those who acted to end a human life under these circumstances doing something that was morally correct ? How would someone respond to this question using the ethical principles of: a rule utilitarian

Answer 1

Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility,usually defined as maximizing total benifits and reducing suffering or the negatives.Rule utilitarianism is the form of utilitarianism that says an action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good or that that rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance . Principle of utilitarianism is that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

In given five case studies they killed the loved one to reduce pain due to suffering so according to rule utilitarian its not punishable,but practicing without license at hospital is punishable according to state acts.