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Utilitarianism And John Stuart Mill's Analysis

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Utilitarianism was brought about by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The basic premise of this idea of Utilitarianism is to promote the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people. John Stuart Mill wrote an entire book on Utilitarianism. In this book, he refers to Utilitarianism and the idea of utility as the “Greatest Happiness Principle” (Mill, 2007, p. 6). Mill says that the “Greatest Happiness Principle holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to promote the reverse of happiness” (Mill, 2007, p. 6). According to Mill, when an action makes a person happy, it is a good action. The opposite is true that when an action makes a person unhappy, the action is wrong. …show more content…

When the person dies, all pain and suffering he or she was feeling ends. There are a lot of moral issues that come along with the idea of euthanasia. It seems as though a lot of humans today view euthanasia as a selfish way out, similar to the views on suicide. In James Rachels’ book, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, he says that euthanasia goes against “the dominant moral tradition in our culture. That tradition is Christianity” (2012, p. 100). Euthanasia is seen by most people in the United States as …show more content…

Peter Singer is defending voluntary euthanasia by saying that if the patient is suffering, euthanasia is justified by the idea of Utilitarianism (Singer, 1993). When a person is euthanized per his or her choice, that person is ending up happy. It would be wrong of anyone to withhold the death the suffering, pain filled, and unhappy patient so desperately wants. The quote from this essay, “death is a benefit for the one killed” (Singer, 1993) pretty perfectly sums up why euthanasia can be supported by

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Euthanasia should be permitted everywhere around the world because all individuals have the right to determine their future either by choosing death or the right to live. For instance, in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the companionship of Candy and his dog is very strong as they stay together all day long. Candy’s dog has become very old and weak in which he is forced to give up his life since he was no use. According to the text, “He ain’t no good to you, Candy. An’ he ain’t no good to himself.

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One thing to note is that a lot of individuals suffering from a terminal illness usually are financially struggling, which could cause them to feel like a burden and to possibly consider euthanasia (Katherine, 2023). Another moral value used to justify the position of supporting euthanasia is happiness, suggesting that euthanasia increases happiness and decreases misery in the world. Using this moral value to justify their position does not work because it is too broad. It could be argued that euthanasia is justified as long as it increases happiness and decreases misery. This could justify the killing of an innocent individual.

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One being that if every person in the community gave up their happiness for the common good, then the common good’s happiness would not be there, because the community as a whole is not happy because they are giving that up for the general happiness. Secondly, I believe it would make sense that if the individuals of a community are happy, then the general mood of the community would be happiness. A supporter of Mill’s idea of utilitarianism might say that Mill describes pleasure with what makes us happy and that it is easy to sacrifice that for the common good. He supports

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Consequently, Utilitarian principles help the people of the world live in the peaceful and calm world. In fact, the key point to reach peace for all people of the world is happiness and rejecting all heartless, unfriendly, and painful actions. Utilitarianism theory believes that the action has a moral value when it leads to the highest degree of happiness for the maximum amount of people. ``Happiness is desirable and the only thing desirable as an end, all other things being only desirable as means to that end``(126). Utilitarianism theory is a logical theory that answers ethical problems based on desirable happiness.

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To clarify his point further, actions are to be considered just or morally correct if the purposes of the action evoke happiness either to one or many persons as it is intrinsically good without question. The same is for the contrary such as if actions evoke unhappiness to one or many persons, then they are to be considered morally wrong or unjust. Examining deeper into the facets of happiness and unhappiness, happiness would invoke something such as pleasure, which would give to higher pleasures and considered intrinsically good whereas unhappiness would promote

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1. Utilitarianism Philosopher View (Jeremy Bentham & John Mill) Utilitarianism theory was founded by Jeremy Bentham and then got expanded by John Mill who came up with the 2 types or forms of Utilitarianism which are Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism says an action is right if it tends to promote happiness, and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness and doesn’t just involve the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it.

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(Mill, utilitarianism, p.697) To put this into simpler terms, Mill is essentially saying events or experiences are desirable only when it is a source for pleasure, so actions are good when they lead to higher levels of general happiness and they are deemed as bad when it lowers your general level of happiness. However, it is important to note utilitarianism doesn’t say it is morally right for everyone to purse what make them alone happy but instead morality is dictated by what increases the total amount of utility in the world. Pursuing your own happiness at the expense of the majority of social happiness would be viewed as wrong by utilitarian’s. Mill then proceeded to say that morality requires impartial consideration of the interest of everyone involved, its not just about your own happiness.

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Euthanasia is usually used to refer to active euthanasia, and in this sense, euthanasia is usually considered to be criminal homicide, but voluntary, passive euthanasia is widely non-criminal. Voluntary Euthanasia is conducted with the consent of the patient while Involuntary Euthanasia is conducted against the will of the patient. Beginning with the philosophical aspects of euthanasia we must first understand the importance of the sanctity of life. Human life is sacred because God made humankind in His own image, and that each individual human

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Whereas, others disagree with the idea of euthanasia because they believe the patient should have a chance to be treated and regain their health instead of choosing the “instant death” route and it may increase the number of assisted suicides. Euthanasia has been made legal in several places around the world such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, India, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Canada. The only U.S. states that have legalized euthanasia are Washington, Oregon, Colorado, California, Washington D.C., Vermont and Montana (“Legality of

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It also has people who disagree with this kind of killing. Some people think it is a crime. I agree that Euthanasia is the right ways for patients. There are many reasons why Euthanasia is valid.

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