Ethics in Medical Research: Utilitarian and Kantian Ethics

Running head: ETHICS 1
Ethics
Name
Institution

ETHICS 2
Utilitarian ethics
Utilitarianism believe that an action is deemed right of the action is said to be promoting
happiness or wrong if the intent of an action is a product that contradicts happiness. It does not
necessarily mean the happiness of the doer of the action but all the people who might be affected
by the action. In support to utilitarian, the research on couples at Cornell Medical College
contradicts the spirit of utilitarianism since the research does not disclose to the research subjects
that they are more interested in couples where one partners HIV positive (Mandal Ponnambath &
Parija, 2016).
This is attested by the concept of utilitarian which suggests that the theory relies on some
intrinsic value where all other values are to be derived from the intrinsic value (Ives & Bekessy,
2015). However, the weakness of utilitarian arguments is that all other values are based on the
intrinsic value and the end goal of the research at Cornell is determined to find a vaccine or cure
for HIV and AIDS. It implies that the test subjects receive treatment and medicine as benefits
during the study and their action to contribute in the research is considered as a good gesture
which is meant to benefit many people (Metzger, 2016).
Kantian ethics
Kantian ethics stems from the work of Immanuel Kant and is considered as the universal
theory that informs the principles of ethics. It postulates that the wrongness and rightness of an
action does not necessarily depend on the consequences rather whether the actions fulfil some
form of duty (Baron, 2018). In this regard, Cornell research study in Haiti is considered as moral
duty to find the vaccine or cure of HIV and AIDS. The strengths of Kantian ethics provides the
basis to create a distinction and inclination which is beneficial to other people. Therefore, since
the research is aimed at finding better approach to the virus then it is justified.