Physician Assisted Suicide Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Physician Assisted Suicide - Term Paper Example Utilitarianism, which is one of most well-known ethical theories under the umbrella of consequentialism or teleological ethics, is a school of thought, which believes that right and ethical actions are those, which could create maximum good for the maximum number of people. In other words, it focuses on the minimizing the pain and maximizing the pleasure (Devettere, pp. 106-107, 2009). If the issue of physician-assisted suicide is put forward in front of a utilitarianist then he would engage in a hedonic calculus for calculating the pleasure and pain inflicted by the situation of the patient. If the total pleasure is greater than the total pain than the utilitarianist would argue that, the person should live and vice versa. Furthermore, despite the fact that how much pain the person is suffering with, if the life of the person is causing pleasure and benefit for a greater number of people then the utilitarianist would argue that it is better for the person to live for as long as poss ible despite his condition (Donnellan, pp. 61, 2005). More importantly, even if the person pleads death, an utilitarianist in that particular condition would refrain from letting it happen because according to Millian principles of utilitarianism, if ever there is a clash between the two basic principles or values of this ethical theory which are â€Å"Utility† and â€Å"Liberty†, then utility must prevail over liberty (Keown, pp. 201, 2002). Relativism refers to the school of thought who believes that absolute truth, knowledge of reality is inaccessible to the humans because of that every bit and a piece of information or truth that comes to us is highly subjective.  Ã‚