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Ethical Dilemma: Sam's Transplant Case

The document presents a thought experiment about a man named Sam who visits his sick aunt in the hospital. While there, five other patients urgently need organ transplants to survive - a liver, spleen, lungs, heart, and pineal gland. Sam's organs are a match for all five patients. The document asks what a hospital following the Categorical Imperative or the principle of utility would do in this situation.

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Fᴀsᴇᴇʜ̶ ʜ̶ᴀʀᴏᴏɴ
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73 views1 page

Ethical Dilemma: Sam's Transplant Case

The document presents a thought experiment about a man named Sam who visits his sick aunt in the hospital. While there, five other patients urgently need organ transplants to survive - a liver, spleen, lungs, heart, and pineal gland. Sam's organs are a match for all five patients. The document asks what a hospital following the Categorical Imperative or the principle of utility would do in this situation.

Uploaded by

Fᴀsᴇᴇʜ̶ ʜ̶ᴀʀᴏᴏɴ
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Name________________________

“The Case of Sam”: A Test Case for The Principle of Utility and The
Categorical Imperative

This passage is taken from Does the Center Hold? by Donald Palmer

Sam, a basically normal, rather nondescript but “nice” human being, goes to the
hospital to visit his only living relative – his senile, sick aunt. His visit coincides
with five medical emergencies at the hospital. One person needs a liver
transplant, another a spleen transplant, another a lung transplant, another a new
heart, and a fifth a new pineal gland. Each of the five patients is a tremendously
important, much-loved person whose death would bring a great deal of grief and
actual physical discomfort to a great number of people. Sam’s death, on the other
hand, would be mourned by no one (except possibly by his aunt in her lucid
moments).

Assume that Sam’s blood type matches the blood types of the people who need
the transplants.

Questions for Thought and Writing:

1. What would the hospital administration, all strict believers in the


Categorical Imperative, do to Sam and the patients in the hospital?
What principles would guide them in their decision?

2. What would the hospital administration, all strict utilitarians, do to


Sam? Why? What would be the intended result? Identify and explain
unintended results. What do the unintended results reveal about the
principle of utility?

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