The Philosophical Approaches of Kant's Deontology and Mill's Utilitarianism in Reviewing the Movie Extreme Measures
In the 1997 film Extreme Measures a young British doctor, Guy Luthan, who is serving a residency in a New York hospital, is faced with some difficult moral and professional dilemmas. This film used Dr. Luthan's dilemmas, which dealt with these sensitive issues of doing what is right regardless of the consequences involved, as well as questions involving scientific advancement and experimentation. How far can medicine go in the name of progress or helping humanity? Dr. Luthan discovers that homeless people were being used as guinea pigs in experimental research for the good of humanity.
Using the philosophical approaches of Kant's Deontology and Mill's Utilitarianism, I will present the ethical parameters of Dr. Luthan's dilemmas and how these two theories explore the moral nature of human beings. Kant's moral system is based on a belief that reason is the final authority for morality, where as Mill's is based upon utility, or doing what produces the greatest happiness. Based on these theories and their perspectives, I will explain why I believe that Kant's approach provides a more plausible account of morality in Dr. Luthan's dilemmas.
Dr. Luthan has several personal and professional dilemmas to face in this film, but I will focus on the two main ones; the first is deciding which patient he'll send to the only available operating room and the second is his investigational discovery of a neurologist colleague, Dr. Myrick, who has been conducting secret experiments using homeless patients as guinea pigs.
The first dilemma starts with Dr. Luthan in the emergency room and has to choose between two patients who need urgent care: a "barely stabilized" (Rosenstand) police officer who has been shot, and the "troublemaker" (Rosenstand) that shot him, whose condition is worse. Dr. Luthan has only seconds to decide which one should go to the only available operating room and he chooses the police officer. He is then bothered by whether he made the right decision or an
Using the philosophical approaches of Kant's Deontology and Mill's Utilitarianism, I will present the ethical parameters of Dr. Luthan's dilemmas and how these two theories explore the moral nature of human beings. Kant's moral system is based on a belief that reason is the final authority for morality, where as Mill's is based upon utility, or doing what produces the greatest happiness. Based on these theories and their perspectives, I will explain why I believe that Kant's approach provides a more plausible account of morality in Dr. Luthan's dilemmas.
Dr. Luthan has several personal and professional dilemmas to face in this film, but I will focus on the two main ones; the first is deciding which patient he'll send to the only available operating room and the second is his investigational discovery of a neurologist colleague, Dr. Myrick, who has been conducting secret experiments using homeless patients as guinea pigs.
The first dilemma starts with Dr. Luthan in the emergency room and has to choose between two patients who need urgent care: a "barely stabilized" (Rosenstand) police officer who has been shot, and the "troublemaker" (Rosenstand) that shot him, whose condition is worse. Dr. Luthan has only seconds to decide which one should go to the only available operating room and he chooses the police officer. He is then bothered by whether he made the right decision or an
Bibliography: wasn 't required for this assignment, but my resource was Nina Rosenstand 's The Moral of the Story - An Introduction to Ethics, 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill, New York. 2003.