ARTICLE CRITIQUE

ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Article: By Tim Christopher

Overall, based on the article that we have studied, we can conclude that moral philosophy

could not determine on how individual should act in certain situation even though, there are

many theories that have had been contributed by philosophers regarding to concept of moral

judgment. As we learnt in moral philosophy class, there are a variety of theories offering

different perspectives and explanation about how individual should acts morally. For instance, in

Kant’s theory, an act considers right or wrong independent on the consequences. Meaning that,

Kant does not really concern about the consequences of the action, however he believes that a

morally good action must have a good will or intention to do the right things. Here is the

example of this theory, helping unfortunate by stealing others belonging. This is morally

accepted because we have good intention to help the needs even we are take others right. On the

other hand, in Bentham and Mill theories are very contradict with Kant because both of these

philosophers were do not look at all into the action, instead they more focus on the consequences

or effect of the action so that, the action may bring pleasure to people. They decide the action is

morally right or wrong based on the consequences. Let take a war issues as an example, the

action bombed of city of Hiroshima is consider as good although many innocent were

victimized. The war was morally justified because it bring happiness as it end the brutality of

Japanese. So, here we can see that these theories of moral philosophy cannot be applied in all

situations because the theories have weaknesses and limitation as it is suitable for particular

circumstances.

In today’s world, in line with the era globalization and revolution, people do not really

care about moral or ethics anymore. As a proof, they could not differentiate between moral and

normal issues. They do not know how to judge some actions are morally good or bad because

they do not have absolute guideline. If we look at the current phenomena, people nowadays are

more tend to fulfill their interest compare to doing goodness for others. For example, someone

would like to spend more money to purchase luxurious things instead of donate that money to a

charity. This action could be deemed are morally wrong because to determine an action morally

or not by observing the effects to individual itself and others. To clarify this thing, we would like

to highlight an issue which is not everyone take note about this. This issue, euthanasia is

consider as major contemporary moral issue because this issue have been question throughout

the time either this issue can be morally acceptable or not. If we want refer back to the moral

philosophy theories, we will get different answer because each theory recommend different

perspective. Before we discuss further about this, we would like to define the meaning of

euthanasia first.

First of all, euthanasia is assisted suicide, killing someone intentionally to help them

ending their life as they wish due to physical or mental limitation. This issue have been

questioned either it is allowed or not, good or bad. Some of the people assume that kind of issues

is morally in term of helping other to fulfill their wants instead thinking about the consequences

that bring destruction to people surround them. This case perhaps will effect on the people

psychology and emotional.

While in Islam, assisted suicide is morally wrong because we cannot end someone life

easily. Here we can conclude that Islam not allow the follower to commit this action, even our

intention is to end the suffering of an individual. Besides that, there are a few reasons behind the

not acceptable of this action. Firstly, life is sacred. We must appreciate our life and do the good

deeds as much as possible as this stage is our final stage in the world. Secondly, Allah decides

how long each of us will live. The death is under Allah’s control. Our life is belonging to him, so

He is the one who has a right to terminate our life. We must go on our life even we got suffering

a lot. We cannot give up our life easily; we must struggle until the end our life

However, in our view, we cannot give extreme view on this issue. We must take other

aspect in consideration like the circumstance of the patient and other. As we said before, this

issue has been discussed a long time ago, but there is no ultimate decision on this case. Some

may say never morally acceptable and some say it is morally permissible. Then, here we would

like to discuss the both view on this case. In this paper, we will explain why most of people

judge it is morally acceptable or not. Based on our discussion regarding this matter, we can

conclude that we also have different view on this issue. Every one of us has their own argument

on that matter.

Nevertheless, some of us said that this case is morally justified depend on the patient’s

situation. If there is no hope for the patient to recover and he or she had experienced a lot of

suffering, so it is morally allowed for us to end their life. Like in Kant’s theory, he determines an

action is wrong or right based on our intention. Again and again as we explained above, Kant

does not really care about the consequences of the action. Instead, he more emphasize on the

action with a good intention. So back to the main point, we agree with Kant’s view on morality

that assisted suicide done with good intention to end suffering of someone is morally acceptable.

On the other hand, the rest of us give an opinion that this issue is cannot acceptable

mostly in our society. The main reason of this point is this action gives more disadvantages than

the beneficial thing to the individual as well as to the family members. For instance, the

euthanasia is effected family member’s emotion and psychological aspects. Let say the father

who critically unstable need to assisted suicide because of his worst condition. No hope for him

to get alive. Externally, it is good for him rather than let him suffer a lot, but it will effect to the

people who close with him especially his children and wife. If we as the children, of course we

don’t want their father end his life using that way because we want to give him our love, take

care of him and give our service as children until the end of his life. Even he is dying, but he still

need us being side him. This issue also can bring a traumatic experience to those who lost their

beloved one by that way. It is because someone cannot accept the immediate death. For them it is

a harsh way to end individual life. If we reflect to the moral philosophy theory; Mill’s theory has

explained that the morality can be judged by looking at the consequences. If the action gives a

good effect to majority, it is considered as moral. In other word, Mill determines whether an

action is right or wrong based on the pleasure and pain and also looks effect of the action. For

this issue, the action of euthanasia is bringing bad consequences to the other, mostly to the

family members. Therefore, euthanasia is considered as morally unacceptable as it is bringing

harm to majority.

On the other hand, this matter is not only the one which has been discussed, but there are

a lot of the other contemporary issues arise like abortion, terrorism, racism, environmental

concern, and pornography. These problems also have been discussed throughout the time.

Nevertheless, there is no final answer about it. Majority still confusing about this matter is it

morally acceptable or not, how can we make moral judgment on the action. Here, we do not want

to discuss further on these issues because all kind of this matter is similar euthanasia case. We

just take the euthanasia issue as our case study.

In conclusion, these kinds of issues were basically depending on the situation of people

who encounter it. We contribute the different point of view cannot impose our value of judgment

regarding this matter. It is because, perhaps they have their reasons for every single thing that

they do even it affected to others or not. Likewise the philosophers, they offer their view based

on their experience on their time. They contribute the theory based on how they perceive the

world during that time. However, the time has change and the lifestyle is also change in

accordance with the time. So, we cannot strictly follow the theories in moral philosophy.

Sometimes, it is a rational for us to apply these theories in our daily life but it is depend on

situations. Hence, we as a Muslim can use western theories on morality as long as it not against

Islamic laws and beside should appreciate what have been contributed. It is not easy for them to

create something new for society. They had given a lot of effort to generalize new ideas. These

theories sometimes can be guideline for us to act accordingly besides, referring on the sacred

book.

B.ED. GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING (GUIDE)

EDC 2354

INTRODUCTION TO MORAL PHILOSOPHY

ARTICLE REVIEW TITLE:

Issues in Contemporary Moral Philosophy

BY:

NOR AISHAH YACOB 1115502

NOR NAZIRA MOHD NOR 1112016

NURNASIHAH AZIZAN 1111350

NIK KHAIRUN NISAA NIK MUSTAFA 1111302

LECTURER:

DR. AFAREEZ ABDUL RAZAK