Utilitarianism In Sports Ethics

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The failure of the NFL to disclose credible research linking concussions to permanent, hidden long-term brain injury to the players can be interpreted as both ethical and unethical. Ethical theories and traps influenced the NFL’s decision. Not disclosing the research is considered moral by the ethical theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarian ethics considers the best decision is one which maximizes overall happiness and minimizes overall pain is more ethical. Utilitarianism’s goal is to produce the best outcome for the largest number of people. The NFL’s failure to reveal the research connecting concussion to permanent brain injury’s is in line with utilitarian ethics. A larger population benefits from football compared to the small number of …show more content…

Deontological ethics values the right decision regardless of the consequences. The right thing for the NFL to do was to disclose the credible research about the long-term effects of concussion on football players. The failure to reveal lead to suicides by players unknowing suffering from CTE. Mike Webster’s wife said if she would have known her husband was sick she would have done more for him. If they NFL would have discussed this information, Mike Webster would have received the necessary care and not been driven to commit suicide. Even though the NFL would potentially lose profits from informing the players, they could have saved multiple lives. Under deontological ethics, disclosing the information would be the right thing and an ethical organization would not care about the consequences. NFL’s lack of ethics endangers their own players by not informing them on the possible repercussions of concussions that affect 28% of …show more content…

Per utilitarian ethics, no matter the link between football and CTE, the research the NFL’s actions would be considered ethical. Lack of certainty in the research makes deontological ethics more difficult to implement. Since the research did not directly related football to the brain injuries, there is not the same obligation to disclose research that is not definite. Parallel to if the information was conclusive the NFL fell into the ethical traps of money and conflict of interest. The NFL still had to wrestle with ethical traps even if the it was considered ethical to not disclose the research. Since the research could not exclusively blame football concussion to permanent brain injuries, the ethical decision was not as black and white as

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