Today's laws consider human life the highest of all rights. Hence also the ethical difficulty relating to abortion. Although abortion might be the utilitarian course of action; the mother does not have the finances to support a baby: there is no husband; the baby will not have access to his or her basic rights as a person, the ethical viewpoint of many fundamentalists is that it simply cannot be morally justified to kill an unborn baby.

The problem related to utilitarianism and humanity is therefore the fact that human beings are generally emotionally involved in their decision making. Utilitarianism divorces emotion from the decisions to be made. This can also be seen in Marilyn's story. Barton's and the Commander's emotions are clearly deeply touched by Marilyn's predicament and please. The reader's emotions are similarly touched. Interestingly, however, both the reader and Barton, and ultimately Marilyn, understand that the utilitarian way...
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