Vance Andre E. Baldoza
BS Pharmacy- 1
09/02/2021
The ethical issue involved in this case study is Jim’s responsibility to take action. His
decision whether he will do nothing and just let all the Indians get killed or he accept the captain’s
offer which is he will kill one of the Indians himself and in return the lives of the remaining 19
Indians will be spared and they will be set free. Jim should response in a way that
no lives get taken.
In the Moral relativist perspective, Jim would condemn the killing of the Indian protestors
because his cultural beliefs or the values he was instilled perceive the act of killing as wrong or
immoral. But somehow it will still not be enough to stop the captain from murdering those people
because their beliefs do not align with Jim’s values and for them killing is not wrong because it is
what they usually do as soldiers.
Moreover, as a missionary Jim surely will not accept the captains offer of killing one of
the people because in the Religious ethics way, Jim, as Christian, one of his religious beliefs which
is the Ten Commandments dictate that killing is highly immoral thus the act itself opposes one of
God’s rules which is to never take someone else’s life no matter what the cost is because it is
considered as a sin.
In the scenario where the captain offered Jim a privilege of killing one of the Indians in
exchange of setting free the remaining Indians, if Jim did accept the offer and killed one person at
the expense of saving the majority then it would be acceptable. It is where the Utilitarian view
comes in wherein the best action is the one that leads to the greatest benefit for most of the people
involved. The remaining Indians gets the chance to live at the expense of one life.
Furthermore, Deontological ethics proscribe against killing of innocent people because in
the Deontological way, the morality of an action is intrinsic and not based on the consequences
thus killing is wrong when judged by the action itself regardless of the intention or the
consequence. So, if we look at the case of Jim in the Deontological way, accepting the captains
offer which is killing one of the Indian is clearly an immoral act even if the remaining lives will
be saved.
Generally speaking, the act of murder is wrong thus if Jim’s actions is to be grounded based
on Moral Absolutism, then he will refrain from accepting the offer and do whatever it takes to stop
the soldiers from killing the Indian protestors. He would not allow for an intentional killing of the
people because it would basically destroy the basic good of human life.