What Are Some Ethical Issues In Gone Baby Gone

Introduction In the movie Gone Baby Gone, the main character Patrick finds himself in a moral dilemma. He must decide if he will contact the authorities on the Doyle family for abducting Amanda from her mother after painstaking searching for the child for the majority of the movie. He decided to call the police and reunite Amanda to her mother, Helene. Although it may seem like a simple question to answer, we must consider it from the perspective of how the child will be treated from either family. This question will be answered using various ethical theories; neither giving a right nor wrong answer, but focus on their respectful views. In this paper, I will argue that Patrick’s decision is not morally justified when taking into consideration

If we take into account the number of people who were following this story across the nation, those who were actively involved in the search, and those who were directly affected by them finding and returning Amanda, then that would generate more overall happiness. Undoubtedly, the happiness of the population would then quickly end within weeks as it was a story that many people would forget about due to their personal lives. Additionally, from Helene herself as she only seemed thrilled to see Amanda because there were cameras nearby recording her reaction. By contrast, if he had decided to leave Amanda with the Doyle family, then it would only cause a small number of people lots of joy. But if we consider the entirety of Amanda's lifespan, then I believe that it could go the other way, where leaving her with the Doyles would be morally right because it would add up to more happiness overall. Meaning, both the Doyles and Amanda would have more happiness across the lifespan because she would be in a better place physically and mentally as they would put all of their care in her; where Helene would most likely not do as such based on her previous actions towards her

They base the rightness or wrongness of a specific action depending on the action’s adherence to a rule. Where the “right” thing to do is to make a decision that can be universalized to the masses. The overarching point that Kantians believe is to never make an exception for yourself. Furthermore, they can determine the rightness of an action based on five steps. First, state what act you are considering doing and why you want to do it. “I will do act X in order to achieve A.” Second, you would universalize that action to everyone. Everyone will do X, in order to achieve A. Third, you will simply imagine a world in which step two is occurring. Step four, you will ask yourself if in the world imagined in step three, if you could perform X to achieve A. If the answer to step four is no, then you are forbidden from performing action X and will not be able to move on to step five. But, if your answer is yes, then you continue to step five to answer if the world imagined is desirable to rational people. If the answer is no, then you can perform action X sometimes. But, if your answer is yes, then you should always perform action