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Super Size Me

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The Film Super Size Me Ethical Paper
Zhen J. Huang
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Introduction Take a look around when you go out, what do you see? Loads of fast food restaurants? Maybe McDonalds is the exact name. In the documentary film Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (2004) shows that fast food has become a fixture in the American culture, as well as other countries’ cultures. As Spurlock (2004) said in the film “what would happen if I ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days straight? Would I suddenly be on the fast track to becoming an obese American? Would it be unreasonably dangerous?” For this paper, I am going to discuss about the concerns of fast food, namely McDonalds by using three ethical theories: Hedonism, the Desire Theory, and Ethical Egoism.
Hedonism: The Pleasure of the Super Size As Rabinowicz and Ronnow-Rasmussen (2005) explains, “an object is thought to be intrinsically valuable … depends on … final value if it is valuable ‘as an end’, ‘for its own sake’, rather than for the sake of something else” (p. 115). The kind of pleasure hedonists claim is always intrinsically valuable is health. If people know that they are healthy and are free of sickness or pain, they are living a good life, and a good life is a happy life. Basically, health contributes to happiness and the happier the person is, the better his/her life is going to be. According to Veenhoven (2003), “There is a longstanding discussion about the merits of this hedonism. Some praise it as natural and healthy” (p. 437). So, if one is not healthy or is feeling sick, then he/she is not happy; it is what hedonists say that misery takes away a good life. In the film, going into the seventh day of eating only McDonalds, Spurlock (2004) says, “I’ve started to have – not chest pains … I got pressure on my chest. I figure that’s probably not a good

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