Please help explain Ethical Categorical Imperative by Kant in regards to a patient with cancer wishing a friend to assist in assisted euthanasia. The friend considers this as suicide/murder. The patient does not want the family to know and the patient plans on going through this act with or without her friends assistance.

 

The Categorical Imperative is supposed to provide a way for us to evaluate to make moral actions and to make moral judgments. It is not a command to perform specific actions, it is simply formal procedure by which to evaluate any action about which might be morally relevant. According to Kant, it is a rule of conduct that is unconditional or absolute for all agents, the validity or claim of which does not depend on any desire or end. In the case of the cancer patient and the friend, the friend is put in a difficult situation in regards to the ethics of categorical imperative because it is explained as universal and impartial. Universal, because all people, in virtue of being rational, would act in precisely the same way, and impartial because their actions are not guided by their own biases, but because they respect the dignity and autonomy of every human being and do not put their own personal ambitions above the respect that others deserve.

Step-by-step explanation

For Kant, the basis of the theory of the good lies in the intention or the will. Those acts are morally praiseworthy that are done out of a sense of duty rather than for the consequences that are expected, particularly the consequences to self. The only good thing about the act is the will, the good will. That will is to do our duty. It is our duty to act in such a manner that we would want everyone else to act in a similar manner in similar circumstances towards all other people. The case mentioned above is conflicting when it comes to the ethics of categorical imperative because it values life but at the same time also values respect for other people's choices. The friend who views the cancer patient's wish as suicide/murder is only doing what Kant sees as a perfect duty which is no killing and no physically harming others. If the cancer patient wishes to go through it anyway even without the help of the friend, it is also the moral obligation of the friend to respect the patient's choice.