Kantian Utilitarianism Analysis

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As an immigrant myself I perfectly understand the case of this undocumented woman from Brazil. Although I have never been an undocumented nor illegal immigrant, I know what it feels to leave family behind and not see them for many years. In addition this is an exceptional woman who has proven to be an asset to this society and not a burden to taxpayers. The woman works overtime to support herself and her children who live abroad. The man who wrote this seems to empathize with the woman and he seems conflicted. On one hand he would like to help her by marrying her, thus giving her a legal status in the US. On the other hand, he knows this is illegal otherwise he wouldn’t be asking for advice.

A Kantian would apply the principle of universal …show more content…

A utilitarian would weight the consequences of the writer marrying and not marrying the woman. By marrying the woman the writer would benefit her, her children, and most likely our society because she is hard working and would pay taxes on her income. The negative impact of marrying her would be getting caught. By not marrying her she would likely marry someone else who she would have to pay, and this doesn’t guarantee her the legal status because if the authorities figure it out she will be in a lot of trouble. She could also get deported and not only is this bad for her and her children but for society too because deportation procedures cost a lot of taxpayers money. With all this information at hand a utilitarian would see that marrying the woman would produce the better good for everyone. They are concerned with how our actions impact others and they believe in maximizing pleasure by minimizing pain. Utilitarians are also driven by emotions rather than reason unlike Kantians. The writer feels sympathy for the woman and understands her needs, a utilitarian would like to stop her pain by doing what they consider the right thing, which is marriage. This marriage would solve her situation and end her suffering, therefore creating something good out of something that is considered bad. This shows how utilitarians believe in the end result and let emotions be part of their moral

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