Assignment: The Ethical Systems
Write a 1-2 page essay regarding the ethical systems to the following situations:
a. In the movie Sophie's Choice, a woman is forced to choose which one of her children to send to the gas chamber. If she does not decide, both will be killed. How would ethical formalism resolve this dilemma? How would utilitarianism resolve it?
b. There is a continuing debate over whether the United States had to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Present the arguments on both sides. Now consider this: Are they utilitarian arguments, ethical formalist arguments, or some other?