Ethics

Alex was put into the position of prosecutor of Daniel, the serial killer, and was forced to try to give him the death penalty. She was walking the fine line of making the public happy by trying to execute Daniel, because he scared the public so much that they wanted blood. On the other had Dr. Wong had learned that Daniel had tertiary syphilis, which had caused holes in his brain, so he was mentally unstable. So she had the choice of either killing the murder, Daniel, or letting him be declared mentally insane so he would go to a mental institution. The people who had a stake in this are Daniel, Alex, Daniel’s wife, and the public. The consequentialist view would say the public has the most people, so they would be happiest if Daniel was given the death penalty. The deontological view would say it is not right to ignore the insanity to be please the masses, so he should be sent to a mental institution. The virtue ethics view would say if Alex wanted to be a good lawyer than she would uphold the law as best as she could, which would be institutionalizing Daniel. In theory, Alex should let him go to the mental hospital, this is because it is the right action to do, because the law says if someone did not know of their actions they should be put into a hospital, and Daniel’s case is a perfect example of this.