Utilitarianism and the Categorical Imperative

¶ … utilitarianism and the categorical imperative in "Extreme Measures"

In the film, "Extreme Measures" the resident Guy Luteran argues that no matter what, sacrificing human lives in the short run, to achieve a long-term utilitarian goal of prolonging and improving life is wrong. Thus Guy advocates Kant's use of the categorical imperative against Dr. Lawrence Myrick's utilitarian advocacy of deploying risky surgical techniques upon spinal cord injury patients to help more patients in the future become whole again. Kant's imperative stresses following the rules of what we know, intuitively and rationally, to be wrong, rather than to morally speculate in regards possible outcomes that could be more productive.

The essence of Kant's objections to utilitarian theories is that utilitarianism actually devalued the individuals it is supposed to benefit. If we allow utilitarian calculations to motivate our actions, we are allowing the valuation of one person's welfare and interests in terms of what good they can be used for. It would be possible, for instance, to justify sacrificing one individual for the benefits of others if the utilitarian calculations promise more benefit. Doing so would be the worst example of treating someone utterly as a means and not as an end. (McCormick, 2001) the patients with the injuries have become 'means,' their welfare sacrificed for the greater good of patients in the future.

However, although utilitarianism traditionally promotes the greatest good for the greatest number, in actuality, in his second chapter on Utilitarianism, Mill criticizes Kant's categorical imperative as the same as utilitarianism since it involves calculating the good or bad consequences of an action to determine the morality of that action. Mill argues that his task is to demonstrate this highest principle inductively. Instead, he argues that actions are right in proportion, as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. (IEP, 2001) but it thus also could be argued from Mill's theory, that the use of the patients harms the hospital as well as the patients, and provides only shady future benefits, while does secure and sure harm to human happiness in the here and now, by turning humans into guinea pigs. Thus, from both moral perspectives of Kant and Mill, the actions of "Extreme Measures" could be viewed as both categorically and from Mill's perspective, wrong from a utilitarian ethical mindset as well.