Dilemmas and Viewpoints

1. Dilemmas and Viewpoints CS 340

2. Scenario 1 – Annie the student • Annie lives in an poor section of Big Town. Last year, Annie started attending a magnet school. At the magnet school, teachers have high expectations and give lots of homework. Annie needs to use a computer to complete her work, but her family and friends do not have one, nor is there a public library nearby. Her school has resources that she can use immediately after school but that conflicts with her part-time job. It happens that her apartment is located next to a small private college. Annie usually walks there at night to the college lab and uses their resources. The signs clearly state “student use only” but there is no log in required. • Would Kant say Annie’s behavior is ethical? Explain why or why not, and give any factors that are important. • Next, perform the same analysis under a Act Utilitarian viewpoint. • Next, perform the same analysis under a Rule Utilitarian viewpoint.

3. Scenario 2 - George • The Jeffersons’ “George the Philanthropist” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh5NYwnVXsQ&feature=related • Using the arguments of the utilitarian viewpoint, support George’s actions.

4. Scenario 3 - The Kohlberg Scenario: • In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $ 1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug-for his wife. • Using the social contract theory, write an argument that explains why the husband was justified in stealing the drug. • Using the utilitarian theory, what argument could you make to support the husband?

5. Scenario 4: Mr. Doe • As a nurse, you are the last person to see Mr. Doe before he dies in hospital. You believe that he has become mentally incompetent in the last few hours and in that time he has rewritten his will. In the new will he viciously attacks each member of his adopted family and reveals that he actually was born a woman. He then cuts every family member out of the will leaving his fortune to a Psychic Chat-line. Mr. Doe asks you to make sure that the new will gets to his lawyer. Knowing that the document will most likely be thrown out of court but not before the damage to Mr. Doe's family is done, do you carry out Mr. Doe's last request? • Scenario by Jeff McLaughlin, Thomson Rivers University. • What would a deontological ethicist do and why? • What would utilitarian do and why?

6. Scenario 5: the van • You run an orphanage and have had a hard time making ends meet. A car dealership offers you a new van worth $15,000 for free if you will falsely report to the government that the dealership donated a van worth $30,000. You really need the van and it will give you an opportunity to make the children happy. Do you agree to take the van? • Scenario by Jeff McLaughlin, Thomson Rivers University. • What would Kant say? What would his reasons be? • What would an ethicist following utilitarianism say & what reason would he or she give?