CASE STUDY

Case Study

Case Study

Right or Wrong

The hypothetical case scenario is based on life saving in emergency cases where the leader is sure that he/she can save only limited number of lives. In this scenario, only the 50 strongest people are allowed into the lifeboat! It seems cruel but babies, children, pregnant women, the physically challenged, and the elderly are allowed to die. In this “law of waterjungle” only 50 strongest people are allowed to live. Ethically speaking, this decision was correct because saving the 50 strongest people can be more fruitful rather than saving 50 weak and near to death ones. Since no SOS was sent and because the ship was not on normal trade routes, it seemed very unlikely that a rescue would happen. The lifeboat contained limited food and water supplies. Based on years of experience, the captain felt sure that the coming storm would sink the over-crowded lifeboat causing everyone to drown. However, if the load was lightened by half, the captain felt that the boat would probably survive the storm and with lots of hard rowing and difficult navigation, it might be possible to make it to the coast

Theoretical Support

Cultural Relativism

Cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs, customs, and ethics are relative to the individual within his own social context. In other words, “right” and “wrong” are culture-specific; what is considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and, since no universal standard of morality exists, no one has the right to judge another society's customs.

Thus, in 21st century American culture, a person with more chances to survive and being productive has more right to live than the weaker one. The decision on ship according to cultural relativism was correct. The following paragraph also supports the decision.

Cultural relativism sees nothing inherently wrong (and nothing inherently good) with any cultural expression. So, the ancient Mayan practices of self-mutilation and human sacrifice are neither good nor bad; they are simply cultural distinctives, akin to the American custom of shooting fireworks on the Fourth of July. Human sacrifice and fireworks—both are simply different products of separate socialization. So, decision to save the strongest 50 is morally correct and nothing is absolute right or wrong. What matters is the society and culture.

Naturalism

The term 'naturalism' has no very precise meaning in contemporary philosophy. Its current usage derives from debates in America in the first half of the last century. The self-proclaimed 'naturalists' from that period included John Dewey, Ernest Nagel, Sidney Hook and Roy Wood Sellars. These philosophers aimed to ally philosophy more closely with science. They urged that reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing 'supernatural', and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality, including the 'human spirit'

According to this theory, the scientific method employed by the ship captain was the probability of life. He believed that 50 strongest can survive if given a delicate support. While the weak ones or babies have low probability of survival even if given ...