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Explain Bill's Moral Responsibility In The Case Of The Train

436 Words2 Pages

Bill’s moral responsibility in the case of the train is to switch the tracks towards Sarah causing her death and preventing the death of a hundred. This view is one like shared by utilitarians, who hope to produce the greatest amount of good. Though Bill will have to directly cause a death, allowing one hundred would be more than immoral. Utilitarianism gives us insight as to why Bill should prioritize the train, while deontology shines light on how Bill may feel after doing so. The threshold in this situation in contrast with feeling a sense of restraint, allows for us to see the weight of his actions in relation to deontology and utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an ethical view that favors actions producing the “greatest good.” The use of utilitarian action is displayed in the case of Joe the janitor, when the doctor faces the problem of saving one hundred lives at the price of one. By killing a single janitor, the doctor would save a large number of people.. …show more content…

The guilt of causing the death of an innocent person may drive deontologists to refrain from taking any type of action. In this same way, Joe the doctor may think like a deontologist if he doesn’t make the sacrifice in order to keep a clear conscience. This method of thinking favors not being involved in what would bring forth consequences. It’s easy to not take action but when there are one hundred lives on the line, not taking action itself, can come with consequences. This gives us a perfect example of a threshold. Deontologists and Utilitarians would agree that there is an amount of hard that is morally acceptable to allow. In our cases of the doctor and engineer there are a lot of lives on the line. In any case not taking action would be equivalent to letting a large sum of people

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