Fourteen tales of injustice and unreasonable demand

Intuitive objections to utilitarianism come in two main types. Utilitarianism is accused of requiring you to do things to other people that you ought not to, and of forbidding you from doing things for yourself that you should be allowed to do. We might call these injustice objections and demandingness objections respectively. Both objections are best introduced using simple stories, some already familiar from earlier chapters. Stories 1- 9 relate to injustice objections; 10–12 are demandingness objections; while in our final two tales utilitarianism forces you both to sacrifice yourself and to behave unjustly to others.

1. The sheriff. You are the sheriff in an isolated wild-west town. A murder has been committed. Most people believe that Bob is guilty, but you know he is innocent. Unless you hang Bob now, there will be a riot in town and several people will die. Utilitarianism says you must hang Bob, because the loss of his life is outweighed by the value of preventing the riot.

2. The transplant. You are a doctor at a hospital. You have five patients who will each die without an immediate transplant. One patient needs a new heart, two need a new lung, and two need a new kidney. Mary comes into a hospital for a routine checkup. By a remarkable coincidence, Mary is a suitable donor for all five patients. …