Utilitarianist Perspective On Euthanasia

Brain dead, but still alive. That is how a 33 year old pregnant woman was being forced to “live”. Marlise Munoz was pronounced brain dead at 14 weeks pregnant after suffering from a blood clot in her lungs. Though Ms. Munoz was legally dead and her family’s wishes were to stop treatment, she was to remain on life support until her baby could be delivered by a cesarean delivery. It was ruled two months later by a state district judge that Ms. Munoz was to be removed from life support because the law prohibiting “removal of life-sustaining treatment to a pregnant woman” didn’t apply in this case because she was already legally dead. At this point Ms. Munoz was 22 weeks pregnant and the fetus was not viable, as well as having suffered from hydrocephalus, a possible heart condition, and the lower extremities were deformed. This poses the question of is it …show more content…
Utilitarianism is where you do what’s best for the group as a whole. Meaning you look at the action or behavior, think about the consequences, and choose what brings the largest amount of happiness to the majority of people involved. Happiness being defined as more pleasure and less pain in this particular perspective. In the case at hand, the most pleasure would come from removing Ms. Munoz from life support. It’s hard to see why that would be the answer but look at it this way: She herself is dead, so her family is suffering by being dragged through a prolonged death, and her unborn child is suffering because of the health issues he is undergoing because of her blood clot and brain death. You also have to look at other factors effecting everyone involved with utilitarianism, like expenses on the family, hospital, and lawyers being pulled into this mess. Rachels supports euthanasia in any for as long as the intentions are to alleviate pain, because the only thing that matters are the person’s intentions, not their