Kantianism and Utilitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Kantianism and Utilitarianism - Essay Example This paper will focus on evaluating a euthanasia case of Brophy, using utilitarianism and Kantianism. Brophy is a patient in persistent vegetative state, whose wife expressed the intent of carrying out passive euthanasia.Kantianism. Immanuel Kant described a deontological ethical philosophy titled as ‘Kantianism’. He made it evident that in his view, duty, good will, and moral worth were critical aspects in determining of the action taken. In his view, one could only settle on morally worth decisions when guided by goodwill and duty. He opined that duty was the only reason that should motivate an ethical action (Abel 24). According to him, human beings are moral agents that should use reasoning while making ethical decisions. He highlighted that certain maxims were critical as guidelines of making ethical decisions. These principles were the product and reason and were namely duty, goodwill, and categorical imperative. Goodwill is a critical moral maxim because he highli ghted that without goodwill, any positive trait or action does not qualify to be good (46). Therefore, the will determining why an individual carries out a certain action cannot receive underestimation in deontology. He advanced his views to highlight that the only way in which an individual could exhibit good will was through taking action out of duty.In Kant’s definition, good will denotes the ability of human beings in taking decisions based on principles.