Should You Keep A Secret?

Andre and Luda, the happy couple.

All right, so let’s set the scene: There’s a zombie apocalypse that’s recently terrorized the city, and the only survivors we know of are hiding out at a mall. Two are married, Andre and Luda, and they are pregnant with their first child. In their last encounter with zombies, Luda got a minor bite on her arm but overall the two of them have managed to escape any major injuries. Sounds like they’re doing pretty well, right? WRONG! The survivors have discovered that the way zombies infect humans with their virus is through biting them. The time it takes you to turn into a zombie varies, but one thing is for sure: you will. That being said, is it ethically sound for Andre to keep his wife’s bite a secret? Especially since telling the survivors would mean certain death for his wife and unborn child…

Utilitarianism certainly says otherwise. Had Andre been acting in a utilitarian fashion, he would have put aside his own desires and told the other survivors of the risk to their safety. Utilitarian followers believe that “one should benefit oneself only if those acts benefit the whole of conscious life, where measurements of benefit include both short- and long- term consequences” (Salazar 1392). However, Andre chose to be selfish and endangered the entire group of survivors so that he would be able to keep his family together for as long as possible.

Luda once she has completely transformed into a zombie.

However, some might just agree with Andre’s decision to keep the group uninformed of Luda’s bite. Kantianism believes that, “in order to act morally…one must be motivated from duty, seeking to do what is right because it is right” (Salazar 1392). Since Andre views his sole duty to be protecting his wife and unborn child, does that make it morally okay for him to endanger the lives of others? I guess it depends who you listen to.

Now we all know that zombies don’t exist (hopefully), but this general principal can be seen in the real world. Lets say you have the flu, and your employer doesn’t give sick time. If you can’t get your shift covered, you might just go into work. But while you’re coughing and sneezing all over the break room, you’re putting all your co-workers at risk. All these poor people now could get sick because your wants were more important than the health of the group.

Making the right decision in this situation is hard, because well, there is no right decision. Everyone can agree that Andre should have told the group, but what if it was your wife? Your child? (husband, parent, pet fish, etc.) Then the decision starts to get pretty unclear. Factoring in the emotions toward the person, keeping the bite a secret seems like a pretty good idea…

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