Burnor States Deontological Ethics Responses To T

RESPOND TO BOTH PARTS/100 words or more Per response to classmate

• Build the discussion by posting thoughtful and substantive, interactive responses of 100 words or more to your classmates’ posts. Two instances of interaction are required and more are encouraged.
  
• Interaction should include constructive criticism (positive and negative) offered in a supportive, collegial spirit. In an active learning experience such as discussion, constructive criticism can be a very powerful learning tool if offered in this manner.
• The following questions may be used as guidance for a good response:1.Do you agree with the view put forth? Why/why not?2.What are some of the strengths of such a view? How might one go aboutbuilding upon and developing such a view?3.What are some of the shortcomings of such a view? What sorts ofobjections come to mind to the view put forth? All written material must also conform to proper standards for spelling and grammar.

CLASSMATE ONE

PART 1

Case 15, p. 96: A man and woman, both college students, have been living together off campus for three years. They have never considered marrying, and it has always been implicit in their relationship that each should be free to leave the other any time he or she wishes. Unexpectedly, the woman becomes pregnant. Since she is opposed to abortion, she resigns herself to having the child. When she is seven months pregnant, the man decides to leave her. One day when she is out shopping for groceries, he gathers his belongings, scribbles a hasty note (“Our relationship was beautiful while it lasted, but it’s over”), and leaves.

The parties involved are the college students, the male and female and their expected unborn child. The decision to never marry and being set free at any given time was decided prior to the woman getting pregnant. Which in turns leaves the father of the child immorally incorrect because he didn’t consider altering their decision and left her unexpectedly when she was 7 months pregnant. Her being able to reconsider the terms of their relationship, have the baby, regardless of the outcome implies that she is the party who’s applied the Kant Theory. The mother of the child understands disregarding their unborn child, because of a poor decision that she made in college is morally wrong, and she’s adjusted her decision to do what’s right.

PART 2

Speaking in Kant terms, one must be ready for all outcomes regarding the decisions that they’ve made. I believe that human choices are free and caused because if everything that’s happens is caused by prior events one should be free to make any decision that they want in relation to what’s happened. If one makes a decision and later feels as if they want to alter that decision they should have the ability to do so. I don’t feel that these events are mutually exclusive because two parties could come to terms on making the right decision regarding a situation.

CLASSMATE 2

Part 1

For this portion of the discussion I have chosen case 20 on page 121 of Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues. The parties involved in the case are Sally and her father. The moral issue at stake is that she swore to her father on his death bed she would graduate college and become a physicist. Burnor states deontological ethics determines right and wrong by identifying right kinds of acts and moral duties, not by looking at consequences (Burnor pg. 152). In this case Sally told her father what he wanted to hear, so he would be at peace, even though she didn’t want to be a physicist. She made what she believed at the time to be the right moral decision. Even though her promise was a lie, she considered her father’s feeling as the most important factor in the situation. His happiness or gratification was the only thing that matter to her. Her reparation was to obtain a college degree and go to law school. It might not have been what she promised her father, but she is doing what’s best for her. In the reading Ross maintains that these duties (Fidelity) arise simply from the fact that there already exist those conditions can be made better or worse by our actions (Burnor pg. 154). It’s her moral duty to tell her father the truth, but the consequences of her telling the truth would’ve been heart breaking in this situation. I personally have been in the same situation, so I understand the feeling Sally went thru at the time. What do you think would have been her father’s reaction is she said no I want to study law? Sally decision to go to law school could’ve been a decision she made recently. All the case share similarities, each party must make a chose that can affect the feeling of others if they tell the truth. Lying is not ethical or moral, but in these cases the truth will have a negative outcome for both parties involved.

Part 2

The human choice I chose was the right to die for the terminal ill. As I read part two of the discussion the Brittany Maynard story came to mind. She was a 29 year old women that was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2014. She moved to Oregon to take advantage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law. On November 1, 2014, she received medical aid in dying. Many people looked at her actions as morally wrong due to the fact she ended her life, a chain of events altered her life. Determinism states human action and events ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Previously existing conditions played a factor in Brittany chose. She suffered frequent seizures, head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms. Kant states the moral law is fully available to all persons and is autonomously made by each person (Burnor pg.167). To Brittany to end her life was the moral right decision to make. Rather than send her family through the pain of seeing her suffer, she made a decision that she believed was best for everyone. Metaphysics thesis of free will choose a course of action from among various alternatives. She could have chosen to deal with not only the physical pain but also mental pain her family would endure and eventually die from her illness. I feel its possible to view human choice and action as being both free and cause. In the case of Brittany Maynard caner caused her to take the actions to end her life, it was a choice she made on her own free will.