Utilitarian Bioethics

[Paul the Human]

It's not about punishment. It's about quality of life and the cost to society. According to Utilitarian Bioethics, it is ethical to euthanize babies born with mental or physical defects in order to save them from a life of suffering, as well as save society from having to support them financially. It also saves those people that would have dedicated their lives to caring for them from... needing to bother.

Utilitarian Bioethics also allows for treatment to be withheld from the elderly and terminally ill if that treatment does nothing but extend their lives slightly. The longer they live, you see, the longer they must suffer life... and the more resources (money and manpower) they leech from society. It is far more ethical to simply let them die (or euthanize them).

Those are just a couple of examples of what I consider to be the problems with Utilitarian Bioethics. It shows no compassion or empathy for human life... unless that life can contribute more than it costs society. They try to claim compassion by saying that they are saving these people from suffering.

What bothers me is that this kind of thinking is becoming more prevalent in medical circles and is even being taught in most medical schools.