The Pros And Cons Of Utilitarianism

The moral theory of utilitarianism consists of welfarism, a theory of the good, and consequentialism, a theory of the right. Utilitarianism dictates that a moral action is one whose results bring about the greatest amount of welfare for all relevant parties. Though, at first glance, utilitarianism may be appealing (Who can disagree with the claim that promoting the welfare of all members of society is the right thing to do?), upon further reflection, it is clear that utilitarianism has a few shortcomings—namely, that utilitarianism simultaneously allows and asks for too much. Utilitarianism’s limitations are most evident when it is applied to a particular scenario, for example, that of an “Organ Lottery” proposal. Utilitarianism can be used
Granted that the sick individuals who are in need of organs also do not deserve to die, it is immoral to save them by arbitrarily killing someone else. Sacrificing this individual, who was chosen by chance, in order to provide vital organs to others, is not morally defensible simply because morality should exist outside the scope of human influence and exceptions to moral prohibitions, such as the prohibition on killing, should be few and far in
Just as in mathematics, though a certain individual’s moral intuition may be incorrect, a broad survey of a moral question should yield the right answer. In this way, a broad survey of mankind on the question of, “Is killing human beings morally permissible?” would produce a moral prohibition on killing. When the answer to a moral survey is ambiguous and causes disagreement, for example, “Is an ‘Organ Lottery’ morally permissible?” that is an indicator that some sort if higher moral rule (“Killing is wrong,” in this case) should be invoked to determine the moral course of action. Most human beings have access to this sort of intuition and the rules that it produces can also be referred to as the rules of common sense morality.
Though adherents of utilitarianism have their own use for common sense morality and believe that the ultimate source of the rules of common sense morality is utility, the moral prohibitions that common sense morality produces should not be so easily dismissed—if only because it just doesn’t seem right for morality to be as inconstant as utilitarians seem to suggest. Thus, one flaw with utilitarianism is that it sometimes prescribes an immoral course of action by advocating for the dismissal of certain moral