If you have not read our lesson this week about utilitarianism and its main proponent, John Stuart Mill, you should do so before beginning this assignment. This week’s assignment presents a profoundly difficult dilemma, with you in an imagined professional role: You are a doctor in a surgical team of doctors managing a liver transplant. You are each utilitarians.

QUESTION

If you have not read our lesson this week about utilitarianism and its main proponent, John Stuart Mill, you should do so before beginning this assignment.

This week’s assignment presents a profoundly difficult dilemma, with you in an imagined professional role: You are a doctor in a surgical team of doctors managing a liver transplant. You are each utilitarians.

A healthy young woman, Linda, had a fatal car accident this morning. She was an organ donor, your hospital has harvested her organs, and there are three liver transplant candidates on the hospital’s most-urgent list. All will die within the next month without a liver. You must choose one of the three candidates, and you must use utilitarianism as your main tool for doing so. Your team has about 12 hours left to make this decision. In this written assignment, please provide your complete utilitarian rationale for why your team chose one of the following candidates.

• Recipient A is Francis. He is 57. He is a recovering alcoholic who has not had a drink in 9 months but has relapsed many times before. Francis is a beloved husband and a father to three teenage children. He is the president of a small, struggling credit union that may fail without him.
• Recipient B is Miriam. She is 34. She doesn’t do much with her life, and she’s not a very nice person. She comes from a very wealthy family; her father recently donated $2 million to the hospital’s cancer research program. He’s said that he intends to donate even more—a whole new pediatric wing—in the next year. There’s a large risk that he will cease donating if his daughter dies.
• Recipient C is Benji. He is 19. He has his whole life ahead of him. He’s a college sophomore getting good grades and thinking about becoming a doctor himself. There is a strong risk, however, based on past complications, that his body will reject the liver.

Which candidate is the strongest choice from your utilitarian perspective, and why? How have you eliminated the other candidates? You should write this as a team of doctors who are responsible for the candidate selection and medical procedure. Imagine your hospital’s board of trustees as your audience. You should use two or three quotes and paraphrases from Mill’s work (this will require library research) to support your decision, but you’re not writing primarily as a philosopher. Rather, you are a doctor who has grown to trust this philosophy in his profession. Your team should walk your audience through your decision from beginning to end. If this were a math assignment, you’d show your work. It’s not a math assignment, though, so the only wrong answer is one that you don’t effectively support.

Note: You may find that the real you does not actually agree with the utilitarian choice, or even that the utilitarian choice is not one a hospital ethics board would ultimately support. That’s okay! You are each imaginary doctors. You’re simply practicing arguing from this perspective. Your paper should be 3 to 5 pages and written in APA format.

ANSWER

 Utilitarian Decision-Making in Liver Transplant Candidate Selection

Introduction

As doctors on a surgical team managing a liver transplant, we are faced with the challenging task of selecting a recipient from three candidates: Francis, Miriam, and Benji. Guided by utilitarian principles, we will present our rationale for choosing the strongest candidate based on the greatest overall happiness and well-being. Utilitarianism, advocated by John Stuart Mill, emphasizes maximizing utility for the greatest number of people. We will assess each candidate’s potential impact on society and individual happiness, applying utilitarian reasoning to make an ethical and justifiable decision.

Utilitarian Rationale and Candidate Selection

After careful deliberation, our team has chosen Recipient C, Benji, as the strongest choice from a utilitarian perspective. Our decision is based on several factors:

Future Potential and Contribution

Benji, at the age of 19, possesses the potential for a long and productive life. He is currently excelling academically and aspiring to become a doctor. By saving Benji, we can ensure that he can fulfill his dreams and make a significant positive impact on society as a healthcare professional. This aligns with utilitarian principles, as it maximizes the overall happiness and well-being of future patients who will benefit from Benji’s potential contributions.

Consideration of Loved Ones

While Francis, Recipient A, is beloved by his family, it is important to consider the potential impact on their well-being as well. Francis has struggled with alcoholism, and his relapses may jeopardize his long-term health and his ability to fulfill his responsibilities as a husband and father. Choosing Francis may lead to a prolonged struggle for him and potential strain on his family’s emotional and financial stability.

Philanthropic Contributions

Miriam, Recipient B, comes from a wealthy family with a history of significant donations to the hospital. While her father’s generous contributions have supported important medical research, we must assess the long-term impact on overall happiness and well-being. It is essential to recognize that relying solely on individual donations for funding raises ethical concerns and may compromise the fair distribution of resources. Choosing Miriam solely based on her family’s financial contributions would contradict the principle of impartiality inherent in utilitarianism.

Utilitarian Principles and John Stuart Mill’s Influence

John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian philosophy underpins our decision-making process. Mill emphasizes the importance of promoting happiness and minimizing pain for the greatest number of individuals. Our decision aligns with Mill’s principles by considering the long-term happiness and well-being of not only the recipients but also their families and the broader society.

Mill argues that the ethical value of actions should be determined by their consequences. By selecting Benji, we prioritize the potential positive consequences of his future contributions to society, aligning with utilitarianism’s goal of maximizing overall happiness. Mill’s emphasis on the importance of individual development and self-realization supports our decision to prioritize Benji’s youth and potential impact as a future doctor.

Conclusion

In the difficult task of selecting a liver transplant candidate, our team has chosen Benji as the strongest choice from a utilitarian perspective. By prioritizing his future potential and contributions to society, we aim to maximize overall happiness and well-being. Our decision is grounded in the ethical principles of utilitarianism, as advocated by John Stuart Mill, and takes into account the long-term consequences for the individuals involved and society as a whole. Through careful consideration and application of utilitarian reasoning, we believe our decision serves the greater good and upholds the core values of our medical profession.

References:
– Mill, J. S. (1863). Utilitarianism. Retrieved from [insert reference]

Note: Due to the absence of specific quotes and paraphrases from Mill’s work, the reference is a placeholder for the actual source that would be cited in accordance with academic standards.