Singer- and Kants categorical imperative - Essay Example

One of the major contributors in bioethics is Peter Singer who has put across various theories in this field. One theory he stipulates is that sacrifices of significant interests must not be done for the sake of minor interest. By this, he means that when considering an ethical issue one must evaluate what is more valuable than the other and then make a decision favoring what is more significant of the two factors. This theory has been used to decide on various ethical issues when it comes to medicine.

A practical example is by considering the example given earlier. In the hospitals doctors and family members always find themselves in tough situations I deciding whether to turn off machines that are keeping a patient who is brain dead alive. Often family members always rely on the doctor’s advice when deciding on whether to pull the plug or not. By using singer’s theory doctors often ask their self one crucial question. Is the patient who is brain dead worth keeping alive without the hopes of any recovery even though it means putting the patient’s family members in serious financial problems because of the high costs they incur as a result of medical bill?

After doctors evaluate this question, they end up advice their patient’s family member to agree to turn of the machines keeping the patient alive since they will only suffer financially despite the fact that the patient will never wake up or recover. Singer’s theory has also been vastly used when it comes to the ethical issue of using animals when it comes to the advancement of medicine and biology. He argues that rights for animals, which are of an inferior species than humans should not be put before that of human beings.

By this, the scholar stipulated that, people should not discredit the use of animals in medical research because this testing f animals will help along were in improving the lives of human beings, which is much more valuable than the life of