Description
DOCTOR YOU
If you have not read our lesson this week about utilitarianism and its main proponent, John Stuart Mill, you should do so before beginning this assignment.
This week's assignment presents a profoundly difficult dilemma, with you in an imagined professional role: You are the lead surgeon managing a liver transplant. You are also utilitarian.
A healthy young woman, Linda, had a fatal car accident this morning. She was an organ donor, your hospital has harvested her organs, and there are three liver transplant candidates on the hospital's most-urgent list. All will die within the next month without a liver. You must choose one of the three candidates, and you must use utilitarianism as your main tool for doing so. You have about 12 hours left to make your decision. In this written assignment, please provide your complete utilitarian rationale for why you chose one of the following candidates.
- Recipient A is Francis. He is 57. He is a recovering alcoholic who has not had a drink in 9 months but has relapsed many times before. Francis is a beloved husband and a father to three teenage children. He is the president of a small, struggling credit union that may fail without him.
- Recipient B is Miriam. She is 34. She doesn't do much with her life, and she's not a very nice person. She comes from a very wealthy family; her father recently donated $2 million to the hospital's cancer research program. He's said that he intends to donate even more—a whole new pediatric wing—in the next year. There's a large risk that he will cease donating if his daughter dies.
- Recipient C is Benji. He is 19. He has his whole life ahead of him. He's a college sophomore getting good grades and thinking about becoming a doctor himself. There is a strong risk, however, based on past complications, that his body will reject the liver.
Which candidate is the strongest choice from your utilitarian perspective, and why? How have you eliminated the other candidates? You should write this as Doctor You (you can use your last name), in the first person. Imagine your hospital's board of trustees as your audience. You should use two or three quotes and paraphrases from Mill's work (this will require library research) to support your decision, but you're not writing primarily as a philosopher. Rather, you're a doctor who has grown to trust this philosophy in his profession. You should walk your audience through your decision from beginning to end. If this were a math assignment, you'd show your work. It's not a math assignment, though, so the only wrong answer is one that you don't effectively support.
Note: You may find that the real you does not actually agree with the utilitarian choice, or even that the utilitarian choice is not one a hospital ethics board would ultimately support. That's okay! You're an imaginary doctor. You're simply practicing arguing from this perspective. Your paper should be 3 to 5 pages and written in APA format.
RUBRIC
You Decide
| Criteria | Ratings | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePurposeIn the one-paragraph introduction, the one-sentence thesis is clear and encapsulates dilemma, solution, and how philosophy (Mill/utilitarianism) leads to solution. |
| 50.0 pts | ||
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeSupport/Development/MillUtilitarian reasoning is used to exclude two recipients and choose one. Quotes and paraphrases from Mill as needed are cited. Reasons for choices are clear and detailed. |
| 60.0 pts | ||
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeGrammar, Mechanics, and StyleGrammar refers to correct standard American usage; for example, subject/verb agreement and correct parts of speech. Mechanics refers to correct idiomatic usage; for example, capitalized proper nouns, word choice, and word order. Style refers to dynamic writing that avoids passive constructions and maintains the reader's interest via generous use of detail. |
| 40.0 pts | ||
Total Points: 150.0 | ||||
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running Head: UTILITARIANISM CASE STUDY
Utilitarianism case study
By: (Name)
Course:
Professor:
Institutional Affiliation:
Date:
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UTILITARIANISM CASE STUDY
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Utilitarianism case study
This paper aims at supporting the decision made on which patient should receive the liver
transplant. Before reaching a conclusion on which patients should receive the transplant, their
medical history will be analyzed properly, so that an ethical decision. The decision will not only
based on the doctrines taught to surgeons about saving lives but also on its ethical implications.
In making my decision, I will use the utilitarianism theory: how each of the three patients will
impact their kin and the society at large if given the transplant. The negative implications of
having the transplant on each patient will also be considered.
The first patient is Francis, a 57 years old family man in charge of a local union. He,
however, is an alcoholic who has relapsed several times in the past. His sickness and damage to
his liver might have resulted from his alcoholism, and thus it might be self-inflicted. Based on
the utilitarianism theory that "…general argument is that morality consists of bringing about the
best state of affairs and that the best state of affairs is the state with the greatest amount of
happiness for the greatest number of people". The transplant can be conducted on Francis
because many people will benefit from his family and the union members if it is successful.
However, there is a high possibility that Francis will revert to be an alcoholic even after the
transplant and end up damaging the transplanted liver (Mazlish, 2017). Thus it will not be fair to
conduct the transplant on him over the other two patients.
The second potential reci...
