David White
Dr. Marion Shea
Philosophy 101
3 October 2013
903 472 568.
Each year, thousands of people are given a second chance of life thanks to the gift from another human donor. With great reward comes the ethical dilemma associated with this procedure. In the movie Blood Work, main character Terry McCaleb is given a heart from a murder victim and is faced with ethical decision regarding whom his heart was donated from, and the ramifications of how the donor heart was made available. This essay will focus on two main theories of ethics; deontologism and utilitarianism to evaluate how Terry handles his moral dilemmas and decide which theory gives us a better way to deal with our moral dilemmas.
The movie Blood Work opens with Terry McCaleb, a veteran FBI detective, on the scene of a murder. As evidenced from the clues let behind, the murder is the most recent murders by the serial killer known as the “code killer”. We now understand that the killer has been toying with Terry as a game to add to his excitement of killing innocent people. As Terry leaves the murder scene he notices the shoes of a person in the crowd and the fact that the shoes match a clue left behind by the murderer. As soon as the connection is made in McCaleb’s head, a chase on foot ensues until Terry is stopped in his tracks by a heart attack. The suspect stops and watches Terry suffer. Before passing out, Terry is able to fire one shot into the suspects side but is still able to flee capture. Next we fast forward to two years later and Terry is in the hospital recovering from his recent heart transplant. Now retired, Terry is content with living the rest of his days confined to his docked boat. A few days later, Graciella Rivers approaches Terry with a job investigating her sister’s murder. Happy with his newfound freedom and second chance at life, Terry turns down her pleas for his assistance. Terry questions her as to why she wants him to investigate when there are plenty of...