Global Ethical Issues Today Essay - 1,549 words

Global Ethical Issues Today (1) Nowadays, many issues that have purely practical connotation, are being discussed within a context
of philosophical ethics, because they are traditionally considered as such that pose public controversy. The concept of ethics
operates with the notion of morality. In its turn, the morality has a relative value, because it derives out of religious perception of the
world. However, we can still figure out of whether any particular way of addressing the problematic issue is morally justified, for as
long as we adopt a logical approach, when it comes to discussion. It is not a particular set of beliefs or our wishful thinking that
matter the most, but hard facts. The issue of legalizing euthanasia and compulsory sterilization of the mentally retarded people is
traditionally surrounded with public controversy in countries where Christian tradition has deep roots.

Majority of people who are opposed to it, believe in the sacredness of life, even without being able to substantiate their point of view.
Their argument is very simple God has given life to an individual and it is only up to this individual to do what he feels is right with it,
because he possesses a free will. However, when terminally ill patients ask for the euthanasia to be performed on them, Bible
thumpers deny them their right to be masters of their own destiny, without coming up with a clear reason why. Let us analyze the
subject of mercy killing and sterilization, in the context of determinism vs. free will. According to the proponents of free will concept,
human beings are endowed with a unique ability that allows them to design their own destinies.

This point of view derives out of Biblical tradition, which suggests that person can only be saved from eternal damnation if he
chooses in favor of pious mode of existence. Humanistic philosophers of 18th century, such as Voltaire and Russo, also believed that
it is conscious choices that define the essence of every individuals life. However, it was only the matter of time, before Christians
and humanists had realized that their understanding of human nature is not altogether flawless. The best argument against Christian
vision of free will comes from their own holy book if God is omnipotent, than he knows what will happen with person in the future.
However, if this is the case, it means that person is deprived of freedom of choice, because his choice is still going to be
predetermined on the higher level. The numerous scientific breakthroughs, in the field of medicine, throughout 19th and 20th
centuries, had proven that human behavior is largely predetermined by biological factors.

This automatically deprived humanistic arguments of their philosophical validity. Thus, we can say that persons life, in general, and
different aspects of his behavior, in particular, are predetermined by genetic factors alone. It explains why some people can score
130, during the IQ tests with ease, while for others, 85 is a limit, no matter how hard they try. This points out to the fact that the
value of human life vary on individual basis. If we assume that it is an intellect that allowed homo sapiens to become a dominant
specie, than we would have to agree that it is ones intellect only that should be used as universal category, when it comes to
assessing the value of individuals life. Can we really say that the life of Shakespeare, for example, has the same value as the life of
savage from Papua New Guinea, whose vocabulary consists of 100 words? To any person who has not completely lost its ability to
think logically, as the result of living in politically correct realm, the answer is going to be negative.

In order for us to assess the real value of ones life, we would have to think of such individual from the historic prospective. We would
have to consider persons hereditary, as a factor that alone defines his intelligence, health and beauty. Therefore, the value of human
life is a relative category. In order to have some value assigned to his or her life, an individual must have a social significance.
Otherwise, we can think of such life as we think of any other form of organic life a set of bodily functions, maintained by the blind
instinct. This is why, in the argument, regarding sterilization and euthanasia, it is utterly inappropriate to refer to the concept of free
will, as many people do. Patients that are affected by mental retardation are being deprived of free will by their parents, who did not
bother to check out whether they carry a defective gene, before deciding to conceive a child.

It is not only socially justifiable to have such people sterilized but also humane. The same applies to legalization of euthanasia. We
can say that terminally ill people are also deprived of the free will, because we cannot discuss their right do die as the matter of
having option, on their part.
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Essay Tags: free will, euthanasia, ethical issue, cultural relativism, sterilization This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for your
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