Is the Deadly Risk Worth the Sacrificial Outcome?

            The movie World War Z, the world is under attack by zombies.  Gerry Lane, former UN investigator who is on the run from the zombies is seeking refuge aboard an aircraft carrier with his wife and two kids. The only way to remain on the ship, and away from the zombies is for Gerry, along with a Seal Team and a doctor to fly to South Korea and attempt to search for the root cause of the zombie uprising.  Due to complications, all of the Seal Team dies, along with the doctor who accidentally shoots himself.  This puts Gerry at a crossroads, continue to fight to find a cure for humanity, or go back to the aircraft carrier to be with his family, and face removal from the aircraft carrier because of his failed mission.  Gerry, being the rational self-interested character that he is decides to continue to search for a cure in the hopes of saving humanity and saving himself and his family in the process. As the plot develops, Gerry finds himself in a WHO (World Health Organization) lab in Wales in the United Kingdom.  Gerry must make a decision as to whether to inject himself with a deadly disease such as influenza, polio, measles etc.  His theory is that the zombies do not attack those individuals who have been stricken with a disease and that it acts as a camouflage against them.  With no regard for his personal safety, Gerry injects himself and then goes face to face with the zombies to test this theory, as he suspected, it works.

            From an ethical standpoint on the situation, the Kantian theory would be agreeable to Gerry’s actions because he made a decision that put his own life in danger for the good of others.  He abandoned all regard for self-interest by stepping in front of a zombie after injecting himself with a deadly disease, which Kant would very much approve of.  The Utilitarian’s theory would have also viewed Gerry’s actions as agreeable in this moral struggle he faced due to the fact that his actions benefited the whole of conscious life.  The benefit of the whole, the whole being humanity in this case, requires sacrifice.  This sacrifice was something that Gerry was willing to make after injecting himself and possibly, if it didn’t work being eaten alive by a zombie.

  Utilitarianism is a theory that states that “one should benefit oneself only if those acts benefit the whole of conscious life.” (Salazar 1393) In this particular movie Gerry does exactly that. He takes matters into his own hands and willingly injects himself with a deadly disease, with the chance of possibly being able to save the entire country form the constantly growing zombie attacks. A Utilitarian would view this as a selfless situation. Even though Gerry is injecting himself in hopes of saving his own life, in the end he also aims to save the entire world, thus agreeing with the Utilitarian view. Gerry is displaying self sacrifice which a Utilitarian believes is a must. He uses the knowledge he possesses, the thought that zombies won’t attack people with a deadly disease, and uses it in effort to save all of humanity. Without Garry’s performance of self sacrifice the world may not have been saved from the ever multiplying zombie attack.

            A Kantian’s ethical view is called the Categorical Imperative which “holds people accountable to their inner value of humanity.” (Salazar 1392) This view also states that there are “duties that people owe to themselves such as developing their talents, as well as duties owed to others, such as being charitable.” (Salazar 1393) In the movie Gerry is put into a very difficult situation. He chooses to use his knowledge, or “talent”, in order to save humanity. Because Gerry had a reasonable hypothesis as to what could stop these flesh eating zombies from attacking humans, he felt like it was his duty to test his hypothesis, which ended up saving not only his life but the entire world. Gerry humanely cared about the other people that were suffering from these zombie attacks, like his family and friends, and sacrificed his life to save theirs. Because of this, Gerry was able to perform a selfless act that saved millions of random peoples’ lives including his own.

            I personally believe that Gerry was put in a difficult situation, which required him to think quickly and effectively. He was face to face with a zombie that at any moment could have bit him, taking his life in seconds. Choosing to inject himself with a deadly illness was a risky decision but personally I believe that it was the only choice he had to possibly save his life. Because he had evidence that zombies didn’t attack humans that were stricken by illness, it was an educational decision to take the injection that turned for the positive. If he didn’t take the chance, he would have been attacked by the zombie inches away, so injecting himself was a chance that was worth taking Even though both Kantian and Utilitarian self-interest views differ as a whole, they both support the fact that Gerry made the right decision, which I also agree on. The action of risking his own life, in the end he was able to save the community and better yet the world. Gerry did the right thing because he knew that it was morally right and didn’t do it for the praise that he could receive if he was able to successfully make it out alive. I believe that both theories took the same viewpoint on Gerry’s situation. They both saw his choice as one that was selfless and destined to help the world as a whole and not only himself.

            If I was put in Gerry’s shoes my actions wouldn’t be any different than his. He made the educational decision to risk his life in order to save the whole community. Though it is a little frightening thinking about willingly injecting a deadly disease in my body, the risk is worth the fright. The zombie would be taking my life anyways, so I might as well take the chance of saving my life by injecting myself with a deadly disease. There is no act of selfishness in my decision to hopefully save my own life. This is because saving my life will be beneficial to the whole. If my life is saved, it would reinforce the hypothesis that zombies won’t attack ill humans. The spread of zombies would then suppress and eventually conclude the zombie apocalypse. Sometimes the scariest situations lead to the most selfless and rewarding outcomes.

 

References:

Salazar, Heather. “Self-Interest,” The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Series on Ethics and Morality, ed. by Robert  Fastiggi. Gale Cengage Learning, 2013