A politician, surrounded by a crowd of people, comes under gunfire. The would-be assassin is using a fully automatic firearm. A bodyguard grabs the weapon, directing the bullets away from the politician. The politician is unharmed, but fifteen people are killed, and four are wounded. Discuss this event from a utilitarian perspective.

Question

Jazmin Huang

Business

31 July, 18:17

A politician, surrounded by a crowd of people, comes under gunfire. The would-be assassin is using a fully automatic firearm. A bodyguard grabs the weapon, directing the bullets away from the politician. The politician is unharmed, but fifteen people are killed, and four are wounded. Discuss this event from a utilitarian perspective.

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Julius Weeks · Answer 1

Morally wrong

Explanation:

From a utilitarian perspective the action of the body guard would be tagged as morally wrong, because it is of the view of the utilitarian that an action should be for the greater good of people irrespective of whether that action is a bad action.

Thus, since the target was the politician, he would have allowed the assassin take the life of the one man - the politician so as to avoid fifteen people been killed, and four wounded.