Utilitarianism
The case of organs is interesting but utilitarianism would never justify the killing of a person for their organs to save, say, a dozen other people. Yes, this definitely increases utility but again it is not maximizing utility. Killing a 40-year-old with lots of utility left to gain is different (utility- wise) from killing a much older person or someone terminally ill with days left to live, or indeed just taking organs from a dead person 27 (fig. 2). We find the left situation on the diagram repugnant but the right situation is intuitively much better. This is why it ’ s so important that people understand the ‘maximum’ part of utilitarianismbecause
otherwise it is easy to feel repulsed. 28
5. Car crash
Even the classic example of saving one life or another is flawed. The example places you in a car crash. You are given a choice between saving your mother, a shopkeeper, or a doctor who is on the verge of finding a cure for cancer. First, the utilitarian thing to do is to try to save both of them, put them both in the recovery position and call an ambulance. But, even if we exclude this option so you can only save one, you know the g88d thing to do is save the doctor. If you do not do the g88d action, if you are led by your emotions and save your mother (acting g44d/g66d), then, yes, you will have done a b8d action but just because most people act b8d and under emotion in a car- crash situation doesn’t discredit utilitarianism. G88d and b8d do not depend on what people actually do when acting under the influence of intense emotion.
6. Mobsters violating rights
The ‘maximum&more’ issue applies to criticisms of other forms of utilitarianism too. Nozickmentions (in objection) a utilitarianism of rights where we aim to reduce the number of rights violated. He proposes that: A mob rampaging through a part of town killing and burning will violate the rights of those living there. Therefore, someone might try justifying punishing another he knows to be innocent of a crime that enraged a mob, on the grounds that punishing this innocent person would help
27 The organs of someone younger are healthier and so may extend the utility of the receiver of the organs more than if they receive the organs of an almost-dead person. But the greatest utility would still favour the latter. 28 I’d even go to say the right -most situation in Fig.2 is not the maximum, the maximum utility would be taking organs from a recently deceased person - which happens to be what we already do.
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