ARTICLE CRITIQUE

ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Article: By Tim Christopher

Overall, based on the article that we have studied, we can conclude that moral philosophy
could not determine on how individual should act in certain situation even though, there are
many theories that have had been contributed by philosophers regarding to concept of moral
judgment. As we learnt in moral philosophy class, there are a variety of theories offering
different perspectives and explanation about how individual should acts morally. For instance, in
Kants theory, an act considers right or wrong independent on the consequences. Meaning that,
Kant does not really concern about the consequences of the action, however he believes that a
morally good action must have a good will or intention to do the right things. Here is the
example of this theory, helping unfortunate by stealing others belonging. This is morally
accepted because we have good intention to help the needs even we are take others right. On the
other hand, in Bentham and Mill theories are very contradict with Kant because both of these
philosophers were do not look at all into the action, instead they more focus on the consequences
or effect of the action so that, the action may bring pleasure to people. They decide the action is
morally right or wrong based on the consequences. Let take a war issues as an example, the
action bombed of city of Hiroshima is consider as good although many innocent were
victimized. The war was morally justified because it bring happiness as it end the brutality of
Japanese. So, here we can see that these theories of moral philosophy cannot be applied in all
situations because the theories have weaknesses and limitation as it is suitable for particular
circumstances.

In todays world, in line with the era globalization and revolution, people do not really
care about moral or ethics anymore. As a proof, they could not differentiate between moral and
normal issues. They do not know how to judge some actions are morally good or bad because
they do not have absolute guideline. If we look at the current phenomena, people nowadays are
more tend to fulfill their interest compare to doing goodness for others. For example, someone
would like to spend more money to purchase luxurious things instead of donate that money to a
charity. This action could be deemed are morally wrong because to determine an action morally
or not by observing the effects to individual itself and others. To clarify this thing, we would like
to highlight an issue which is not everyone take note about this. This issue, euthanasia is
consider as major contemporary moral issue because this issue have been question throughout
the time either this issue can be morally acceptable or not. If we want refer back to the moral
philosophy theories, we will get different answer because each theory recommend different
perspective. Before we discuss further about this, we would like to define the meaning of
euthanasia first.
First of all, euthanasia is assisted suicide, killing someone intentionally to help them
ending their life as they wish due to physical or mental limitation. This issue have been
questioned either it is allowed or not, good or bad. Some of the people assume that kind of issues
is morally in term of helping other to fulfill their wants instead thinking about the consequences
that bring destruction to people surround them. This case perhaps will effect on the people
psychology and emotional.
While in Islam, assisted suicide is morally wrong because we cannot end someone life
easily. Here we can conclude that Islam not allow the follower to commit this action, even our
intention is to end the suffering of an individual. Besides that, there are a few reasons behind the
not acceptable of this action. Firstly, life is sacred. We must appreciate our life and do the good
deeds as much as possible as this stage is our final stage in the world. Secondly, Allah decides
how long each of us will live. The death is under Allahs control. Our life is belonging to him, so
He is the one who has a right to terminate our life. We must go on our life even we got suffering
a lot. We cannot give up our life easily; we must struggle until the end our life
However, in our view, we cannot give extreme view on this issue. We must take other
aspect in consideration like the circumstance of the patient and other. As we said before, this
issue has been discussed a long time ago, but there is no ultimate decision on this case. Some
may say never morally acceptable and some say it is morally permissible. Then, here we would
like to discuss the both view on this case. In this paper, we will explain why most of people
judge it is morally acceptable or not. Based on our discussion regarding this matter, we can
conclude that we also have different view on this issue. Every one of us has their own argument
on that matter.
Nevertheless, some of us said that this case is morally justified depend on the patients
situation. If there is no hope for the patient to recover and he or she had experienced a lot of
suffering, so it is morally allowed for us to end their life. Like in Kants theory, he determines an
action is wrong or right based on our intention. Again and again as we explained above, Kant
does not really care about the consequences of the action. Instead, he more emphasize on the
action with a good intention. So back to the main point, we agree with Kants view on morality
that assisted suicide done with good intention to end suffering of someone is morally acceptable.
On the other hand, the rest of us give an opinion that this issue is cannot acceptable
mostly in our society. The main reason of this point is this action gives more disadvantages than
the beneficial thing to the individual as well as to the family members. For instance, the
euthanasia is effected family members emotion and psychological aspects. Let say the father
who critically unstable need to assisted suicide because of his worst condition. No hope for him
to get alive. Externally, it is good for him rather than let him suffer a lot, but it will effect to the
people who close with him especially his children and wife. If we as the children, of course we
dont want their father end his life using that way because we want to give him our love, take
care of him and give our service as children until the end of his life. Even he is dying, but he still
need us being side him. This issue also can bring a traumatic experience to those who lost their
beloved one by that way. It is because someone cannot accept the immediate death. For them it is
a harsh way to end individual life. If we reflect to the moral philosophy theory; Mills theory has
explained that the morality can be judged by looking at the consequences. If the action gives a
good effect to majority, it is considered as moral. In other word, Mill determines whether an
action is right or wrong based on the pleasure and pain and also looks effect of the action. For
this issue, the action of euthanasia is bringing bad consequences to the other, mostly to the
family members. Therefore, euthanasia is considered as morally unacceptable as it is bringing
harm to majority.
On the other hand, this matter is not only the one which has been discussed, but there are
a lot of the other contemporary issues arise like abortion, terrorism, racism, environmental
concern, and pornography. These problems also have been discussed throughout the time.
Nevertheless, there is no final answer about it. Majority still confusing about this matter is it
morally acceptable or not, how can we make moral judgment on the action. Here, we do not want
to discuss further on these issues because all kind of this matter is similar euthanasia case. We
just take the euthanasia issue as our case study.
In conclusion, these kinds of issues were basically depending on the situation of people
who encounter it. We contribute the different point of view cannot impose our value of judgment
regarding this matter. It is because, perhaps they have their reasons for every single thing that
they do even it affected to others or not. Likewise the philosophers, they offer their view based
on their experience on their time. They contribute the theory based on how they perceive the
world during that time. However, the time has change and the lifestyle is also change in
accordance with the time. So, we cannot strictly follow the theories in moral philosophy.
Sometimes, it is a rational for us to apply these theories in our daily life but it is depend on
situations. Hence, we as a Muslim can use western theories on morality as long as it not against
Islamic laws and beside should appreciate what have been contributed. It is not easy for them to
create something new for society. They had given a lot of effort to generalize new ideas. These
theories sometimes can be guideline for us to act accordingly besides, referring on the sacred
book.








B.ED. GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING (GUIDE)
EDC 2354
INTRODUCTION TO MORAL PHILOSOPHY
ARTICLE REVIEW TITLE:
Issues in Contemporary Moral
Philosophy


BY:
NOR AISHAH YACOB 1115502
NOR NAZIRA MOHD NOR 1112016
NURNASIHAH AZIZAN 1111350
NIK KHAIRUN NISAA NIK MUSTAFA 1111302


LECTURER:
DR. AFAREEZ ABDUL RAZAK