Sequence 9 Discussion Question

By utilitarianism, I will not give my friend the answers. Giving my friend the answers will bring him
temporal happiness. However, this will be unfair to the general population who did study for the
test. Should the fact that an individual who has yet to study manage to receive high marks, it
would bring about widespread unhappiness. Giving the friend the answer isn't ideal as it is not
fair to the large majority. Furthermore, this test might be an important factor which determines his
employability. His employment into a firm which has a large influence on society which may also
be detrimental in a sense that his inability might be a threat to societal security and safety.

Giving my friend the answers will only influence him psychologically that he is able to get away
with studying for the test and cutting corners along the way. The habit of taking the easy way out
due to someone's provision of help when times are tough will form. This incident will hence be
more likely to repeat again in the future, and over time, will not be beneficial to my friend.

My friend might be facing certain personal challenges which led to his inability to prepare
adequately for the test, and sounding this one-off incident to the professor (which might in turn
raise this to the academic disciplinary board) might do more harm than good to the friend.
Reporting this to the professor increases the odds of my friend's suspension or even expulsion
from school, and if he is a scholar, the possibility of him having to repay liquidated damages.

Hence, as a close friend, I will seek to find out the motivations and reasons behind his attempt at
cheating. Appropriate help will be given depending on his response. If he has family or personal
issues, I might refer him to a counsellor, and encourage him to take a short leave of absence to
gather his thoughts, where I will take notes down for the classes he missed to ensure he doesn’t
fall further behind academically. However, if he is genuinely struggling academically, I will
recommend that he approaches the professor personally so that he will be able to catch up with
the areas he is lagging behind. Regardless, I will tell him off for attempting to cheat and remind
him the ramifications for cheating and that cheating is just not worth it.