Holly Lynch Ethical Theory Summary

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Two ethical theories that are used to determine the rightness or wrongness of a situation are Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean and the principle of utility. The doctrine of the mean focuses more on finding a middle ground between two extremes; while the principle of utility is all about finding the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The article “A Lesson From the Henrietta Lacks Story: Science Needs Your Cells” possesses an ethically questionable situation. Whether or not discarded biospecimens should be used in scientific research without the patient's permission is up for debate. The author Holly Fernandez Lynch is very straightforward with her position on the issue, exhibiting a normative ethical theory. Holly Lynch …show more content…

In the presented predicament, Lynch doesn’t show an aristotelian perspective. There is a way in which one could find the mean when giving away our biospecimens using the doctrine of the mean. Aristotle discusses the virtue of justice, where one should not allow too much to be taken from them neither should one take too much. In this case there should be some sort of compensation for one consenting to their biospecimens to be used for research. In Ms. Lacks’s case she had too much taken from her. She didn’t benefit from the research, and her family didn’t see any of the profit …show more content…

Aristotelians when analyzing a situation try to find a middle ground, which is also known as the mean. The mean is different for everyone, but once it is reached, the action becomes virtuous. Aristotle states there are a few different types of virtues such as courage, anger, humor, and justice. Each virtue has a point where they have been taken into excess or deficiency; for example courage when in excess is being a coward, but when in deficiency it is considered being rash. In order for one to be considered virtuous they need to form habits of using the mean to then become continuously virtuous. The doctrine of the mean requires reason and the use of reason to apply it to situations. The principle of utility is all about finding the greatest good for the greatest number of people. When analyzing a situation, utilitarians use the rule of utility, which is thinking about the long term effect. For example, if there are five people in need of different organs and there’s one person that matches all these people, a utilitarian would believe it is okay to kill them for the sake of the five people in need of organs. However, if everyone who needed organs went around killing people it then would become a problem in the long run. All of the people with healthy organs would live in fear of being killed for their organs. This is not in any way an ideal situation.

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