Nicomachean Ethics

Introduction: This reflection will be focusing on the last quarter of the movie, Eye in the Sky. I will begin the reflection with a summary of the movie followed by the actions of Colonel Powell. I will spend the majority of this paper reflecting on Colonel Powell’s action of coercing Sergeant Saddiq into lowering the probability of injury. I will discuss the morality of her actions using normative ethics of consequentialism and deontological ethics of Nicomachean ethics to evaluate her decision. Body: Towards the second half of the movie, Colonel Powell was stuck in a moral paradox. On one hand, firing the missile from a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) would definitely eliminate several wanted terrorist and the definite suicide bombers who would cause horrific damage on the civilian population. On the other hand, firing the missile had a 60% chance of fatally injuring the innocent civilian which was a risk her superiors were not willing to accept. Using Mill’s idea of utilitarianism, Colonel Powell weighed in the life of an innocent bystander with the efforts of her team that has been tracking the wanted terrorist for years and the potential damage they would have caused. To help tip the scales for her superior to sanction her actions, Colonel Powell coerced her subordinate Sergeant Saddiq to report a 45% fatality which was artificially low. As a …show more content…
While Colonel Powell did not remain entirely truthful to obtain proper permission for the mission, she understood the significance of her statements and the amount of truth to be told. While 45% - 60% may affect the decision matrix of her superior, Colonel Powell understood that by using 45%, she captured the element of truth that the risk exist while lowering it enough for her superior to act but omitted portions to get her superiors to