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Theory of Utilitarianism and the Cannabis Dilemma
Task 1. What group is the minority group here? How might John Stuart Mill define harm in this scenario?
The minority group in this scenario is the terminally ill cancer patients who need marijuana to ease their pain. Mill defines harm in the ‘Harm Principle’. He says that the only reasoning for social coercion is when a person prevents another person from harming the society. He says that the society has an obligation to protect people and to prevent them from exerting harm on their bodies. In the marijuana scenario, the government has a duty to protect people from taking the substances even though the people intend to take it.
Task 2. Provide a discussion of John Stuart Mill’s ethical theory in light of current federal law that does not allow patients in Texas to seek alternative medicine, such as medical marijuana, because it is illegal at both the state and federal level. Is this an ethical law according to an application of Mill’s ethical theory?
According to John Stuart Mill, an action is right if it promotes happiness to the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism is a moral theory which is founded on the principle that, “if an action promotes happiness it is right and if it promotes pain it is wrong”. There are three principles of this theory. One is the ‘Harm Principle’ which states that the only reasoning for social coercion is when a person prevents another person from harming the society. If marijuana is legal for the cancer patients it will have negative consequences on the society when it becomes readily available. The second principle states that an individual is subject to social coercion to avert the violation of an obligation to a person or other people. The society should protect people from the harms that violate their right. Such are the use of