Utilitarianism
Abortion and euthanasia
Given a situation where someone has no potential utility (potential to desire anything), and a situation where their death would not cause negative utility to others, it would be morally permissible to end their life. I am referring to abortion and euthanasia. In any case of abortion, the mother's pain by keeping the child will be greater than if she rids her body of it. The foetus/baby, ‘alive’ or not, is unaware of potential utility to be had from life so cannot care if its life is ended. In euthanasia, the person is likely to be disabled beyond hope and in pain, their potential for positive utility in the rest of their life is considered by them to be naught. They may have family who would be saddened to see them go, but equally they would also be saddened if the relative continues in their troubled existence. 67
Utility through illusion
The analysis that we could maximize utility for animals through illusion could be expanded to include humans as well (since we are not un-trickable). It can help explain why people living in LEDCs 68 are not as unhappy as we might expect: they are less aware of what they have not got. People living in MEDCs are less happy than we might expect because there is more ‘stuff’ for them to desire, and so more products which they want but cannot have because , whilst they’re rich, they still cannot afford most of their desires. It does sound dystopian to say that all we have to do is convince the general population into thinking that they’re living their best life. In fact, it’s a common campaign claim among political parties going for their second term that life is as good as it gets. Is it really that repugnant to be deceived into happiness? You and I are both aware there is a leisure class with better lives than our own, but I doubt we would want to not know of their existence. To deprive us of this would be to subdue our other desire for knowledge. But for the cognitively impaired and animals it’s okay to deprive them of knowledge of better lives because they do not desire knowledge as an end-desire the way humans do. So,
67 This would not permit a suicidal person to try to seek euthanasia as whilst they may feel their life has no potential for happiness and utility, an observer would say it had. 68 LEDCs - Less Economically Developed Countries (poorer countries), MEDCs - More Economically Developed Countries (richer countries).
110
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs