The Queen Versuse Dudley And Stephens

The Queen Versuse Dudley And Stephens In this report, I will be using the sited case The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens (1884) with reference to the relevant moral philosophies to anlayse what are the possible options that people would decide when they are in the same situation as Dudley. Four English sailors were trapped at sea in a small lifeboat in the South Atlantic, over a thousand miles from land. They had only two cans of preserved turnips and no fresh water. They had been without food and water for several days. And finally, Captain Thomas Dudley suggested killing Richard Parker so that they could feed on him. Dudley and Stephens ended up killing Parker, and ate him to survive. They were rescued four days later and went to trial. They were sentenced to death penalty; however, their sentence was reduced to six months imprisonment later. 2 Utilitarianism and Categorical Imperative According to Jeremy Bentham (1748 1832), the utilitarian philosophy states that the right thing to do is whatever will maximize utility. He meant utility as whatever produces pleasure or happiness and whatever prevents pain or sufferings. He had made the assumption that human are governed by the feelings of pain and pleasure and that human like pleasure and dislike pain. This doctrine said that the right thing to do is whatever produces the greatest good for the greatest number. On the other hand, Immanuel Kant (1724 1804) provides us with another alternative philosophy Categorical Imperative. He said that categorical locates morality in certain duties and right regardless of the consequences. He regards morality not as to maximize happiness but rather regard people as an end, and never as a means to an end. We should treat people with respect and not use them as mere instruments. 3 Moral and Ethical Issues Raised Some moral issues raised from this case would be that Would it be morally justified to kill an innocent person out of necessity in order to prevent many other innocent persons from dying?; Would it makes a difference if Parker gave consent to be the one being killed? and Will it be morally justified to feed on Parker, assuming he died naturally? Some may argue that it would be essential to kill one person in order to save three lives. In this case, they support Benthams utilitarianism. While others might oppose the idea of utilitarianism and argue that Parker would have the right to live and to kill a person is considered as murder regardless of the reason which suggests the doctrine of categorical imperative. 4 Viewpoints of Captain Thomas Dudley and Edwin Stephen Both Dudley and Stephen claimed that they killed and ate Parker. Under the extreme situation, they had no choice but to kill someone out of necessity. Why is necessity so important to the extent that someone will kill another person in order to save the many other people? According to Oxford dictionary, necessity is defined as a thing that you must have and cannot manage without. Maslows hierarchy of needs states that you have to fulfill the basic physiological needs before other needs. Physiological needs refer to food, air, water, breathing, nutrition, etc. Dudley and Stephen were faced with the situation without food and water, which are considered as their basic needs. I believe that in this case, the fear of dying (without food and water for several days) makes them do anything in order to survive for a short while longer to sustain hope of rescue. Their own lives and families motivated them to kill Parker. The decision made might be unacceptable by others. During near-death experience, Parker was regarded as food to them; they would not think that it is morally wrong by eating him. Majority in the same situation as them would have probably done the same thing. For instance, people suffering from famine, often turn to practice cannibalism as a last resort. During the famine period (1609 1610) in colonial Jamestown, colonists turned to cannibalism. One man was confessed to have killed and eaten his pregnant wife out of necessity (Colonial Williamsburg, 2007). They figured out that the best decision that will benefit most of the people would be to kill Parker, the weakened and ill, since he is the most likely to die before them. I have made an assumption that they had used Benthams idea of utility a common currency of value to evaluate the benefits. They had translated human life into monetary terms. They had families to support unlike Parker who had no dependents. Therefore, the death of Parker will not only benefit Dudley and Stephen, but also their families in terms of financial support and no grieving over lost of their families. They do not regard this as morally incorrect as they think that the decision made was for the greatest good for the greatest number. Professor Michael Sandels example The Runway Trolley shows that most of the people would turn the trolley car onto the side track, killing one person instead of five persons for the first scenario. This is similar to the case of Dudley and Stephen where they killed one person in order to save more people except that in the trolley case is not cannibalism. They have made the same decision as what the majority will do. 5 Viewpoints of Dudley and Stephens Families Their interests would be that Dudley and Stephen ought to have the right to live. I supposed they supported utilitarianism where Dudley and Stephen would be considered as morally justified to have eaten Parker out of necessity. I think that the idea of the greatest good for the greatest number is supported by their families. Without this, Dudley and Stephen would be deem as criminal and maybe sentenced to death. They considered their welfare as a whole would be more beneficial than having all four sailors to die, leaving their families with grieve and no support. 6 Viewpoints of Richard Parker Dudley and Stephens disrespected Parkers individual rights. Everyone have the right to live, however, utilitarianism only concerns about the sum of satisfactions. In Parkers viewpoints, I think that he would favour impartiality, where he gets the right to choose. Impartiality would mean that each persons interests are equally important; from the moral point of view, there are no privileged persons. We must recognise other peoples welfare as important as their own. Another issue raised is that he is an orphan and he had no dependents, does this mean that they could violate Parkers individual rights? The United States Declaration of Independence declared in 1766 that all men are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I think that Parker prefers categorical imperative than utilitarianism. Categorical treat people as end instead of treating the person as a tool to achieve something else. It would be morally wrong, to use Parker as a tool for their own survival. 7 Viewpoints of General Public General public would be interested to know how this verdict would impact future similar cases. Precedent becomes binding and must be followed by courts of same rank. If judge allows the use of necessity as a defence, then there will be a higher risk of more atrocious crime. And the problem rise with who should decide what is considered as necessity. 8 My Stand as Captain Thomas Dudley If I were Dudley, I would not kill Parker and rather wait for rescue under the same circumstances. I would define moral as the principles of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong. I would support categorical imperative in this situation. The reasons for my choice are as below: Individual rights I believe that human have certain fundamental rights. Kant mentioned that every person is worthy of respect, not because we own ourselves but because we are rational beings, capable of reason; we are also autonomous beings, capable of acting and choosing freely. We should take into account of individual needs. However, utilitarianism would argue that by taking account of individual needs rather than the overall needs would produce greater unhappiness over happiness. Utilitarianism requires us to promote the general welfare which results in no priority given to our own interests. It stated that every persons life and interest rank equally with everyone elses. For instance, if a parent thinks that by sacrificing his child to be burned in a building, thinking that someone else in the building should be saved as their future contribution to the general welfare seems greater than the childs. (Cyndi Banks, 2004) I would think that the parents act as immoral. This is because family and friends are not just members of humanity, they are special to us and if we were to show no more concern for their welfare than others, it just does not seem right. I think to put a common currency of value to human life would be inappropriate. Human life is beyond calculations and assigning monetary terms to it does not suffice. This is because money could not buy health (life). Murder is murder, innocent Moreover, I think that murder is considered as fundamentally wrong, no matter under what situation; murder is still not morally permissible. No doubt that sometimes murder is use as self-defense, but it would still be morally wrong. If they were to do so, then what is the difference between them and the person who is causing danger to them? For example, in the case of terrorists, they killed thousands of people so as to achieve their purpose. When these terrorists were caught by the police, they interrogated and tortured them. In this way, the police are acting like the terrorists where they use others so as to achieve their goal. Kant said that we should not use people as instruments to achieve their own goals. I would agree to his idea that individual has the rights to live and it is unfair to make use of them to achieve their goal. Some may say that the terrorists deserved for what they have done. However, Parker is innocent, he did not do anything wrong to Dudley and Stephen nor did he choose to die. Consent This raised another issue of whether consent were given by Parker, would be morally justifiable for Dudley to do so. I think that the consent given by Parker would be a good reason (but not necessary the morally right reason) for Dudley to kill him. This merely lessens Dudleys guilt, but still morally incorrect. It does not mean that the permission given to do something would be morally correct. For example, if A were to give permission to B to kill C, does this mean that B is correct? I believe that everyone would agree that B is wrong. Necessity Parker had no family whereas Dudley and Stephen had families at home. They were without food and water for numerous days and the decision to kill Parker might have save the rest. I understand that under extreme situation, the fear of dying would make someone do something that he or she would not have done previously. However, this does not permit them to kill parker. I think that under no circumstances that someone has the power to voluntary take another persons life. Lord Denning laid down the general approach from the case of Southwark London Borough Council v Williams (1971) that necessity should be denied as a defence otherwise anarchy and disorder would follow. He add on that if hunger was allowed to become the basis of necessity, any poor person might seek to justify burglary to steal food by saying that he or she had reasonable believed that this was a response to the threat of malnutrition. As a rational person, I believe that this would not be what the general public would want. Therefore, even in Benthams point of view, to measure the overall happiness, I think it would be more appropriate to consider the general public instead of just Dudley, Stephen and their families. It would be morally wrong for Dudley and Stephen to kill Parker. Die naturally and feed on parker? 9 Conclusion I think that people will determine the right thing to do (whether involved or as onlookers), and decide based on different philosophies for different situations. They tend not to follow one particular philosophy at all times. For example, the case of ticking time bomb, where torturing of terrorist is required to reveal the bombs location (Michael Sandel, 2009). I believe majority would support the idea of torturing the terrorist to save thousands of lives even we are uncertain of whether he knows about the location. I still think that it would be morally wrong to torture the terrorist because I do not want to act like a terrorist. However, I think that it is not about right or wrong but rather you must do it even though you knew it was wrong. The difference between this case and Dudleys case would be the impact. In the terrorists case, not only thousands of lives are involved, the impact is greater where other countries might also be affected as well (financial and tourism). Secondly, I think that guilty does not equate to morally incorrect and vice versa. Similarly, law and morality are not the same, and many things may be immoral which are not necessarily illegal. If these men were to be found innocent, it would signal the divorce of law from morality. Lastly, I think that it would be a wise decision for not allowing necessity to be used as defence. Just like what Lord Denning had said, by allowing necessity as a defence, disorder would follow. Then what is the purpose for having law and justice? Law is to uphold the justice in society, if necessity can be used as defence, and then there would be a lot of excuses of the wrongdoer.

Indian River and Its Tributeries Essay

The Lohit River has derived its name because of its vigorous nature and thus it is also called the river of blood. The lateritic soil of the river forms its surrounding demography. The river flows through the Mishmi Hills, to meet the Siang at the head of the Brahmaputra valley. The Burhidihing River is one of the major tributaries of the Brahmaputra River. The River Burhidihing flowing at the speed of 103. 58m at Khowang. The waters fall from an elevation of 102. 11m. This river is highly prone to floods and the previous highest flood level was measured to be 103. 92m in1988. Damodar River-The Damodar River originates in the Palamau district of Jharkhand near Chandwa village. The origin of Damodar River is in the Chota Nagpur Plateau region of India. The river flows through the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal for nearly five hundred and ninety two kilometers and then merges with the Hooghly River, which is in the south west of Kolkata. The Damodar River has a number of tributaries and distributaries. They are Barakar, Konar, Guaia,Jamania, Usri, Bokaro, Haharo, Khadia and Bhera. The Barakar is the most important and the only tributary of the Damodar River. This River arises near Padma in Hazaribagh district, flows through Jharkhand,and meets the Damodar River in Dishergarh in West Bengal. The river used to flow through Bengal in yesteryears, from west to east course and then it joined the Hooghly River at a spot near Kalna. Gradually, the river has changed its course and now most of the water in its lower reaches falls into the Mundeswari River. The Mundeswari River combines with other rivers and ultimately most of the water of the Damodar River flows into the Rupnarayan River. The residual water flows through the Damodar into the Hooghly, located at the south of Kolkata. Earlier the Damodar River was referred to as River of Sorrow in Bengal as it used to flood the Bardhaman, Hooghly, Howrah and Medinipur districts of West Bengal, which led to huge destruction of life and property. Even today the floods sometimes distress the lower Damodar Valley but the chaos it brought about in earlier years. However, after building the dams this flood factor has become a matter of history. Pollution of Damodar River is one of the grave concerns of the Bengal authorities. The Damodar is the most polluted river in India today due the several industries that have sprouted on its mineral-rich banks. There are too many coal-based industries that are been build the Damodar valley. Other industries are mostly government-owned coal washeries, coke oven plants, which are the country`s major iron and steel plants and thermal power plants. Zinc, glass and cement plants also cover wide areas along the riverbanks. The overburden of mine effluents, fly ash, oil, toxic metals and coal dust caused the pollution. Defective mining practices, outdated processing practices and lack of proper maintenance were compounded by corruption, inadequate pollution control and a state pollution control board that did nothing. The people living in the basin are slowly being poisoned because the Damodar and its tributaries is the only source of drinking water for most people living in the area. However, the governmental measures have brought significant changes in the status of the river for the past years. The geology of Damodar River indicate heavy metal concentrations at various zones of the river. At two sites in near mining areas, the coarser particles show similar or even higher heavy metal concentrations than the finer ones. Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is based on the Tenesse Valley Authority of the United States of America. This project benefits the states of West Bengal and Bihar. An important feature of this project is the 692 metres long and 11. 6 metres high barrage constructed across the Damodar at Durgapur. Panchet dam, Farakka Barrage, Tilaiya Dam and Konar Dam are the dams at River Damodar. The tributary of Damodar River is one of the most ferocious and voluminous rivers of Eastern India – River Barakar, which begins near Padma in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand and flows for 225 km across the northern part of the Chota Nagpur plateau. GANGA– The Ganges River is held sacred by Hindus and is worshipped in its personified formas the Goddess Ganga. The Ganga and its tributaries drain a large and fertile basin with an area of about one million square kilometres. The Ganges has a number of tributaries which are mentioned below: Yamuna River Yamuna River, also known as the Jumna, is a major river of the northern India. Yamuna River has a total length of about 1,376 km (855 mi). The Yamuna`s source is at the Yamunotri glacier near Banderpoonch peaks, in the Mussourie range of the lower Himalayas at an elevation of about 6387 meters above sea level in district Uttarakashi. This river, flows in a southerly direction through the Himalayan foothills, onto the northern Indian plain, and a series of valleys for about 200Kms, along the Uttar Pradesh-Haryana state border. At this point, the Eastern and Western Yamuna canals are fed from the river. Son River One of the largest southern tributaries of the Ganges is the Son River of central India. The Son River originates in the state of Chhattisgarh in the east direction of the origin of Narmada River. It then flows in the north-northwest direction through Madhya Pradesh before turning in the east direction where it meets the Kaimur range. The river starts flowing in the parallel direction of the Kaimur range in the east-northeast direction through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and joins the Ganges just above Patna, the capital of Bihar. Mahananda River The Mahananda River is a major confluent of the Ganges in eastern part of India. The river originates from the extreme north of West Bengal from thehills of Darjeeling. It then flows southwards through the fertile agricultural area I in Bihar and enters West Bengal. The river then flows in the southeast direction I in to Bangladesh. I Kosi River I Kosi River one of the main rivers in Bihar and a prominent tributary of the Ganges, originates in the Himalayas. Along with its tributaries, the Kosi River traverses along parts of Tibet, including the Mount Everest region and also one third of the eastern part of Nepal. The river has shifted its course from east to west about 120 kilometres in the last two hundred years. Gandak River Gandak is also known as the Kali Gandaki River and Narayani after the confluence with Trisuli in Nepal. Gandak River is a tributary of the Ganga or Ganges River. It is one of the major rivers in Nepal and India. It is a north bank tributary of the Ganga in India. It rises at 7620 m in Tibet near the Nepal border and overlooks the Dhaulagiri. It is distinguished for the deep gorge across which it flows and for a large hydroelectric facility in Nepal. This river also provides water for a major Irrigation cum Hydroelectric power facility at the Indo-Nepal border at Valmikinagar. The river has a total catchment area of 46,300 sqkm out of which 7620 sqkm is located in India. The Gandaki River is mentioned in the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. Ghaghara River Ghaghara River, also called the Gogra or Ghagra, Nepali Kauriala or Manchu or the Karnali, literally means `holy water from the sacred mountain`. The term Karnali also means â€Å"Turquoise River† and is a trans-boundary perennial river that originates on the Tibetan plateau. The Karnali is called K`ung-ch`iao Ho in Chinese. This river near Manasarowar cuts through the Himalayas in Nepal on its way to the convergence with the Sarda River at Brahmaghat in India where it forms the Ghaghara River. The Ghaghara River is a major left bank tributary of the Ganges. It is the longest and largest river in Nepal with a length of around 507 km and one of the largest affluent of the Ganges. Mahakali River River Mahakali flows between the border of Nepal and India. This river forms the western international border between Nepal and India and it originates from the Greater Himalayas at Kalapaani. The river flows down from a height of 3600 m, in the Pithoragarh District of Uttarakhand. Eventually, it joins with the Gori Ganga at Jauljibi area. This river again joins the Saryu River at Pancheshwar. The vicinity

Raves And Drugs Essay - 1346 Words

Generally people associate raves(Underground Techno parties) with designer drugs like Ecstasy(MDMA), Speed(amphetamine) and other acids like LSD. These drugs are called the Techno Drugs for that reason and most of the time have uplifting and sensatory effects. To understand more clearly the relationship between the raves and these drugs, we first have to understand the philosophy behind the Techno era, and a little about the music. â€Å"Techno, can lift the spirit and become a new world of freedom and peacequot;(DVox Magazine The first electronic music Magazine). Most raves are covered with propaganda about freedom, peace, spirituality and the like. It is no surprise why teens use these specific drugs at raves. quot;The effects of E,†¦show more content†¦7 of my patients who experienced depression made more improvement with E, than with years of therapy and other anti-depressive drugs.quot; (British Medical Journal by Dr. Green Hancock). Drugs are harmful to the human mind , and body in many ways, it is also capable of preventing the body, and mind in fully developing. There are many types of drugs, there are drugs that slow you down, drugs that speed you up, and hallucinogens. Hallucinogenic drugs are substances that distort the perception of objective reality. The most well-known hallucinogens include phencyclidine, otherwise know as PCP, lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD or acid, and psilocybin, or quot;magicquot; mushrooms. Under the influence of hallucinogens, the senses of direction, distance, and time become disoriented. You see sound and hear light. These drugs can produce unpredictable, erratic, and violent behavior in users that sometimes leads to serious injuries or death. Drownings, burns, falls, and automobile crashes have also been reported. Some physical risks include mangled, and unclear speech, decreased awareness of touch and pain, convulsion, coma, heart, and lung failure. 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