Question

Utilitarianism:

The Case of the

Cheating Law Student

The Case

You are a pre-law student who will graduate at the end of the current semester. Your academic record has been impressive. You have not only earned excellent grades but have accumulated a variety of scholastic merits as well as glowing accolades from professors and fellow peers.

Recently, you were informed from a highly selective law school that you have won a very prestigious scholarship. Although your tuition, books, and living costs will be covered by the scholarship, the benefits of this award reach far beyond the walls of the law school campus. Since the early 20th Century, the same New York City law firm has sponsored this scholarship with the ultimate goal of identifying and fostering new, young talent within the arena of jurisprudence. The winner of the scholarship is, upon graduation from law school, guaranteed a position in this well-known, established law firm.

Unfortunately, however, the last semester of your undergraduate career has proven to be an exhausting one. While you are doing well in three of your classes, your last pre-law required course – Introduction to Legal Ethics – is giving you great difficulty. You are very much in jeopardy of earning a grade in this class that will pull your grade average below the scholarship requirement. In order for you to successfully secure the scholarship, your final term paper must be of ‘A+’ quality. Despite all your hard work and the extra help you have received throughout the semester, it is apparent that your term paper is not quite good enough to earn you the needed grade.

Moreover, your situation is compounded by the fact that your family cannot afford to put you through law school. Therefore, without this scholarship, your goal of becoming a lawyer will never be fulfilled. What is more, your mother is extremely ill and your younger brother, due to a serious learning disability, is in dire need of a private tutor. Both your mother’s medication and your brother’s tutorials will cost more than your family can afford. However, if you receive the scholarship, it is very likely that you will be able to help your father acquire what your mother and brother need.

After a great deal of thought, you make the decision to purchase an ‘A+’ paper from someone else and to submit it as your own work. In the end, the paper you handed in earned you the required ‘A+’, thus guaranteeing that you will win the prestigious law school scholarship.

Things to Consider:

i. How would an Act Utilitarian construe the moral acceptability of your actions?

ii. How would a Rule Utilitarian construe the moral acceptability of your actions?

Answer 1

1 . Act utilitariansim is a theory , stating the ethics of a person is correct when he/she is morally right . Thus leading to achieve good , better results .

In the above case as mentioned,

Due to his hard work , he was offered the scholarship . But there was an eligibility criteria for achieving so. He worked day and night , in order to achieve the scholarship. This is an act , which I find to be morally correct .

He wanted to help his father, by not giving the university fees .

2. Rule utilitarian

It is a kind of utilitarian theory , which states that an action can be correct only if it conforms to the rule .

In this case , the rule was to submit the assignment paper on time . However , in order to achieve the scholarship he borrowed a paper which could fetch him A+ grade. As acquiring A+ grade could help him getting the scholarship. Hence, at the end he was offered with the scholarship.