What Makes Right Acts Right and Wrong Acts Wrong Essay

What Makes Right Acts Right and Wrong Acts Wrong - Essay Example This antagonism emanates from the fact that the owners of such sites hold the opinion that they are just displaying public documents, which can in turn make the public make informed choices while dealing with the individuals in question (Segal, n.p.). However, the affected individuals, whose mug shots appears on such sites are feeling offended, considering that some of them could not have committed any wrong, and they were cleared by the authorities of any wrongdoing. Therefore, the consistent display of their mug shots is tantamount to defamation, considering that they may not have been guilty of an offence, and even for those who could have been guilty, they may have transformed their lives. This is issue raises a fundamental ethical question of right or wrong, since the display of the mug shots is benefiting some individuals, such as the owners of the mug shot sites, the search engines and the partnering financial service companies, while causing grave harm to the individuals whos e photographs are being displayed (Segal, n.p.). The utilitarian approach to answering â€Å"what makes right acts right and wrong acts wrong† According to the utilitarian approach, the right action is that which, amongst the entire available alternatives, is most likely to maximize the overall utility, in the form of happiness and absence of suffering (Jack, 437).The main ethical issue the article raises is whether stopping the publication of the mug shots on the mug shot sites would be right or wrong. The other ethical dilemma raised by the article is whether stopping the publication of the mug shots would be beneficial or detrimental to the public. Therefore, in regard to the case above, the utilitarian approach will consider that; since publishing mug shots of individuals who may have previously been booked by the authorities serves to deny such individuals the maximum overall utility; by denying them happiness and causing them dissatisfaction, then, it is wrong to publis h the mug shots in the sites. However, this position may not be agreeable to all the utilitarian advocates, since by failing to publish such mug shots on the mug shot sites, some individuals are also being denied maximum utility, happiness and satisfaction, which they could derive from publishing the mug shots. Therefore, the utilitarians will disagree on the issue of which alternative between publishing and removing mug shots from the sites creates more happiness and satisfaction (Hare, 117). For example, the owners of the mug shot sites will be denied happiness and satisfaction, since they will not get the money they obtain from individuals seeking to have their mug shots removed. This will in turn cause them dissatisfaction and unhappiness. However, considering that the number of the owners of the mug shot sites stands at around 80, while there are over 1.6 million mug shots printed in the sites, it is apparent that much harm is caused to the individuals whose mug shots are publi shed, thus making the option of stopping the publication of the mug shots the right alternative, amongst the rest. The deontological approach to answering â€Å"what makes right acts right and wrong acts wrong† The deontological approach to what is right or wrong is guided by the principle that; an action could be right or morally correct, even though there are still other alternatives that produces overall better consequences (Singer, 232). Therefore, according to the deontological a