Sources used in this document:

Utilitarianism and Deotology - At the very center of the debate on euthanasia lies the core of individual and societal ethics. Philosophically, ethics is a rubric used to understand and explain the way humans morally organize events or actions. The focus is on understanding the way moral choices are presented than judging the outcome of the decisions made. Ethics can be situational, and certainly the dilemmas or morality and choice have different answers depending on the particular time and place they occur (MacIntyre, 2006).

Even prior to the formalization of the terms utilitarianism and deontology, the core ideas of each have been debated for centuries. The Ancient Greeks argued over the needs of the individual as opposed to the needs of the. Showing just how much this concept has permeated popular culture, the philosophical issue even made it to the modern motion picture screen. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical thing one can do is any action that will maximize the happiness within an organization or society. At the center of this debate is the notion that many remain dissatisfied with the definition of "good" or "appropriate" being at the whim of a particular social order, or ruling elite. This debate may be found in Aristotle, Socrates, and Aquinas, leading to more contemporary political notions from Lock, Kant, and even Martin Luther King, Jr. Forming the core modern argument, for instance, Aquinas argued that there were certain universal behaviors that were either right or wrong as ordained by the Divine. Hobbes and Locke differed, and put forth the notion that there were natural rights, or "states of nature," but disagreed on the controlling factors of those natural tendencies. Kant took this further, reacting, and argued that a state or society must be organized by the way laws and justice was universally true, available, and, most importantly, justified by humanity. Yet, for Kant, these innate principles should be mindful of the freedom and choice (autonomy) of the individual. In this way Kant, prescribed that basic rights were necessary for civil society, and becomes a rubric by which we may understand modern utilitarian principles and their interdependence with the concept of human rights (Haydn, 2001). Actions have quantitative outcomes and the ethical choices that lead to the "greatest good for the greatest number" are the appropriate decisions, even if that means subsuming the rights of certain individuals (Troyer, 2003, 256-52). It is considered to be a consequential outlook in the sense that while outcomes cannot be predicted the judgment of an action is based on the outcome -- or, "the ends justify the means" (Robinson and Groves, 2003).

Deontology is a compatible, but alternative ethical system that has its roots in Ancient Greece, but is most often attributed to Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher writing about a century prior to Mill and Bentham. In