Reference no: EM132167052

Choose a contemporary moral issue in our society and apply the ethical principle of Utilitarianism to approve this moral issue. You must pick a moral issue that you strongly support from one of the following :

Euthanasia, Gun Control, Infanticide, Child Labor, Same Sex Marriage Capital Punishment, Stem Cells, Genocide, (War, Terrorism, and Counterterrorism), Race and Ethnicity, Gender, Transgender using Public Bathrooms, World Hunger and Poverty, Environmental Ethics, Animal Rights, Animal Testing, Sexual Harassment, Abortion (as a result of rape, incest, or mother/baby health at risk),, Drug Legalization Media/Entertainment, Voluntary Prostitution Forced Prostitution, Health Care Costs, Education Cost.

To back up your arguments. The paper must be done in MLA format with a minimum of 500 words (quotes are not included in the word count).

You must use at least 3 sources from LIRN (code 24439 ). You must apply Bentham/Mill's "Principle of Utility" for 50 points and Bentham's Felicific Calculus for 50 points. Both are under course materials.

*Bentham's Principle of Utility*

1. Recognizes the fundamental role of pain and pleasure in human life.

2. Approves or dissaproves of an action on the pain or pleasure brought about ("consequences").

3. Equates the good with the pleasurable and evil with pain.

Asserts that pleasure and pain are capable of "quantification" -- and hence of measure.

Utilitarianism- J. Bentham's Felicific Calculus

The felicific calculus is an algorithm formulated by utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham for calculating the degree or amount of pleasure that a specific action is likely to cause.

Bentham, an ethical hedonist, believed the moral rightness or wrongness of an action to be a function of the amount of pleasure or pain that it produced.

The felicific calculus could, in principle at least, determine the moral status of any considered act. The algorithm is also known as the utility calculus, the hedonistic calculus and the hedonic calculus.

Intensity: How strong is the pleasure?

Duration: How long will the pleasure last?

Certainty or uncertainty: How likely or unlikely is it that the pleasure will occur?

Propinquity or remoteness: How soon will the pleasure occur?

Fecundity: The probability that the action will be followed by sensations of the same kind.

Purity: The probability that it will not be followed by sensations of the opposite kind.

Extent: How many people will be affected?