Deontology: An Alternative Ethical Principle Of Utilitarianism

Utilitarians, however, provide an alternative ethical principle. The essential debate between the utilitarianism and deontology is about whether human beings should “define the right as maximizing the good” (Rawls 1988, 15). Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, the classical utilitarians, “identified the good with pleasure”, ergo “the hedonism is the highest value” (Driver, 2014). According to this believe, utilitarians thought that maximizing happiness is the judgmental principle of morality. In this content, Bentham developed the basic principle of utilitarianism, which he described as “the greatest good for the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong” (Anderson, 2004; Burns 2005, 46). Contrasting with the deontology, utilitarianism

They argue that “the rightness of the action is not determined by its consequences alone” (ibid), but “by the consequences of the adoption of the rule under which this act falls” (Simoes 2009, 51), which means the action judged by rules and rules judged by the consequences. Taking the child protection case aforementioned as an example, a rule unilitarian would object the action which the act utilitarian takes, he would follow the rule that parents should not abuse their children as well as agree the OOHC system. The reason for them to do so is different from the deontologists. For deontologists, to protect children satisfied their universal law, however, depriving children from their parents should not be a universal principle, therefore in this case, deontologists would like to do whatever to protect the children’s safty while try not to deprive them from their parents. Contrastly, for a rule utilitarian social work, he would put the child into a OOCH without doubt because if abusing child never being prevented then it would become a “right” thing for parents to do, more children’s safety are being threaten, eventually, harms will override utility.

Both deontology and utilitarianism represent some basically morality principles which has still being used nowadays. However, all of these theories are also biased and “fail to take into account other fundamental aspects

If social workers always conduct out obligations and duties within the exceptionless rules, it is highly possible that they can only contribute little for the society. It has been argued that the exceptionless rules are very general, such as “do not kill people”. However, doing social work practices is about facing specific cases detailed by detailed. For example, in the practice of social work, code of ethics is the exceptionless law for deontologist social workers and they will always follow the code. According to the Code of Ethics (AASW 2010, 27), “a child or young person who is able to give inform consent will be considerd entitled to access social work services withour informing their parents or guardians”. Thus, generally speaking, for the sake of protecting children from physical and psychological abuse from their parents, social workers should obey the Code of the Ethics and take them to the OOHC as a last plan. However, there is no general rule about “How many opportunities should biological parents be given to demonstrate they are able keep their children safe and parent them? What level of support and services should they receive? how long should a child stay in a temporary care? How many placements is it tolerable for a child to experience?” (Hunt, 2016) Without providing a