Utilitarianism And Kantian Ethics In The Case Of Molly Nash

Molly Nash was born with a rare condition called Fanconi anemia that negatively affects her red blood cell count. The only chance she had to survive was for her parents, who wanted to have more children but feared to conceive due to the probability that this child would also suffer from this hereditary condition, to have another child. The placenta from this birth was used as part of a blood transfusion in order to save Molly’s life. The procedure was ultimately a success and Molly’s life has been saved. I will make the utilitarian argument that it was completely ethical for Molly’s parents to give birth to Adam, their “savior baby”. In discussing this issue I will make the assertion that what should considered ethical in this case is circumstantial. In this situation I believe that it is difficult to deny that the right thing to do was to save Molly’s life. As defined by William Shaw, “Utilitarianism is the moral doctrine that we should always act to produce the greatest …show more content…
The strongest stance against the utilization of this strategy is the argument that Adam is being used as a tool by the Nashes and that no human should be used as a tool or treated only as a means to an end. In his discussion of deontological or “kantian ethics” William shaw writes, “In addition to the principle of universal acceptability, Kant explicitly offered another, very famous way of formulating the the core idea of his categorical imperative. According to this formulation, rational creatures should always treat other rational creatures as ends in themselves and never as only means to ends.”(page 3) A deontological ethicist would argue that Adam is not being treated as a respected individual with the basic rights of humanity, and his existence is a merely the means to an end, and Adam, being only a baby, has no choice in the matter of whether he is born or for what