Tallulah Decision Making

The movie Tallulah, tells the story of a young girl named Tallulah, or Lu as referenced to in the movie, who has experienced a lot of hardships throughout her life. Lu who is desperate for money, agrees to babysit a child after a negligent mother agrees to pay her whatever she wants. When the mother returns from a night of partying, she passes out on the bed leaving the toddler to fend for herself. Lu could not fathom leaving the child with what she considered to be an unfit mother, takes the toddler and begins to run. In reviewing the decision making process of Lu in the movie, her decision most closely follows the deontological approach as introduced by Immanuel Kant. Deontology refers to a rational, non-consequential, and decision making process. When examining Lu’s decision making process, the first question to unpack is whether or not she was acting on the basis …show more content…
According to the Kantian Law of Autonomy, this portion of Lu’s decision would have been considered ethical. She was making a decision that was clear from any implicit or latent biases that would affect her ability to make a just judgement call. Although Lu came to the conclusion that she should kidnap Madison with good intention, it t would not pass Kant’s categorical imperative test. If everyone was to kidnap children from people, they feel are unfit to be parents it would not be ethical. It raises the question as to what it means to be a fit parent and who would determine who was fit or unfit. It also raises the question as to whether or not it would be ethical to make the same decision if a parent was sick, suffering from a disability, or not financially stable? This action would not be one that could be considered for universal law as it wouldn’t be appropriate in every situation. When looking at form 2 of the categorical imperative test, Lu’s actions would not align with Kant’s agent of dignity and respect. Lu failed to take into account the respect for all