Culture and a Mans Dying Wish :: essays research papers

A man dies. His communitys culture deems that he be bury in holy ground lest the community suffer some catastrophe. He, having always been at odds with his community on this point, has left a provision in his will that he be cremated and his ashes scattered into the ocean. The body waits in the hospital while the community debates the issue. What is to be done?The elders rush asked for a lesson opinion. What is one to say? If the belief that the man must be buried is one deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of the community, then a decision to cremate him would cause an uproar. On the other hand, if there argon some who sympathize with the man, either decision efficiency cause a schism within the community. The ultimate action would have to depend on much more than the cultures belief about burial. It would have to arrive into consider the cultures beliefs on individual justs, freedom of belief, and the validity of the mans will. It would also have to take into account t he moral implications of carrying out a mans dying wish and the repercussions of violating a sacred social institution. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, but by stepping back and weighing the options carefully, one can know to a conclusion which would be the most moral given the situation. I say most moral because there really is no right choice here. Any action taken will most unquestionably be wrong to at least one group of people. present no plea can be made to universal piety because neither belief in its specific sense appeals to any polished moral intuition. People on the other side of the world might have neither the belief that the man should be buried, nor the belief that his ashes should be spread. Each persons choice would be too influenced by his own heathenish morality, and so nobody would really have a right to judge.Were I to be asked for an opinion on this matter, I feel I would have no authority in my response. It is really the communitys choice, an d I would be apprehensive to make a decision which affects people completely strange to me. I doubt they would ask me in the first place, but were I to be asked my opinion I would say that the man should be buried in the special burial ground.