Kantian Ethics Case Study
In this paper, I will explain Kantian ethics and its application, by utilizing the surgeon and six patients scenario. The surgeon has five patients who are in need of an organ transplant, and without a transplant, they will all die within a day. Another patient, who is a perfect match for all the other five patients, refuses to donate his organs to the other five patients. Thus, the surgeon is presented with two different paths, whether to go against the healthy patient's refusal and save the lives of the other five patients or to let the other five patients die.
To understand how Kantian ethics can be applied to this case a basic understanding of the formula of humanity is needed. The formula of humanity states, “act in such a way that you …show more content…
Treating an ARN as a means to an end, in essence, is to value and respect a life only because of its use for another purpose. For example, money is considered to be a means to an end, because money itself is, in a sense, worthless. However, money can be used as a “means,” through bartering, to obtain a materialistic good, which would be an “end.” Thus, if money were to be considered a human-being we would be violating its ARN. The formula of humanity views these actions that utilize a person’s autonomous rational nature as a means, to be morally impermissible. Therefore, the formula suggests that we choose actions that place value and respect on a person’s autonomous rational nature because valuing an ARN is good in itself. Being good in itself means to value something for what it is, not for what it can be used for. Therefore, valuing a person’s autonomous rational nature means to respect it at all times, in addition to abstaining from quantifying it for …show more content…
The action which concurs with the Kantian ethics is to obey the wishes of the healthy patient. The patient has used his autonomous rational nature to decide that donating his organs would not be worthwhile for him. If the surgeon were to ignore the healthy patient's request, he would be violating the patient's ARN through overriding the patient's own willpower to decide what to do with his organs. However, by heeding the healthy patients request he would be respecting the person’s autonomy and thus valuing the patient's autonomous rational
To understand how Kantian ethics can be applied to this case a basic understanding of the formula of humanity is needed. The formula of humanity states, “act in such a way that you …show more content…
Treating an ARN as a means to an end, in essence, is to value and respect a life only because of its use for another purpose. For example, money is considered to be a means to an end, because money itself is, in a sense, worthless. However, money can be used as a “means,” through bartering, to obtain a materialistic good, which would be an “end.” Thus, if money were to be considered a human-being we would be violating its ARN. The formula of humanity views these actions that utilize a person’s autonomous rational nature as a means, to be morally impermissible. Therefore, the formula suggests that we choose actions that place value and respect on a person’s autonomous rational nature because valuing an ARN is good in itself. Being good in itself means to value something for what it is, not for what it can be used for. Therefore, valuing a person’s autonomous rational nature means to respect it at all times, in addition to abstaining from quantifying it for …show more content…
The action which concurs with the Kantian ethics is to obey the wishes of the healthy patient. The patient has used his autonomous rational nature to decide that donating his organs would not be worthwhile for him. If the surgeon were to ignore the healthy patient's request, he would be violating the patient's ARN through overriding the patient's own willpower to decide what to do with his organs. However, by heeding the healthy patients request he would be respecting the person’s autonomy and thus valuing the patient's autonomous rational