Gone Baby Gone is a movie by Ben Affleck that tells about two child abduction cases by criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking. The main protagonist Patrick Kenzie played by Casey Affleck, faces numerous moral dilemmas during the investigation. Captain Jack Doyle is the person who made several decisions made on his utilitarian ethical framework. Hence, the final dilemma that the characters face is regarding the conflict between Kenzie’s and Doyle’s views on the abduction case. Therefore, the essay analyses the movie frames Captain Jack Doyle’s uses utilitarianism as a more ethical one.
People in society can face challenges and dilemmas that require them to decide on actions to take. While countering their motives to reduce the impacts of the dilemmas, individuals can make a decision that deprives other people of pleasure (de Lazari-Radek, 2017). The decision to deny people of their happiness can go against the theory of hedonism. Because utilitarianism assumes that the rightness of the action depends on the level of the pleasure it can generate and the degree of pain it eliminates, they will not support the actions which strip people of their happiness. Hedonistic utilitarianism specifically emphasizes qualities that an individual must preserve while attending to another party, such as happiness, love, and benefits. One of the most significant utilitarian and hedonistic philosophers John Stuart Mill, criticizes the belief that some pleasures are more important than others (de Lazari-Radek, 2017). Therefore, when examining the value of the hedonistic consequences, the philosophers must consider the quantity and the quality of the pleasures.
Hedonistic utilitarianism is as well applicable to law and legal concepts. The hedonistic utilitarianism theory examines the validity of the applicable law based on the degree of pleasure. Notably, the legal concepts must promote individuals’ greatest pleasures and happiness. Therefore, according to the law, Amanda, the abducted daughter of a drug mule Helen, should return to her mother despite the fact that she neglects her and cannot provide proper care for the child. However, Captain Jack Doyle disobeys the law, takes the initiative, and prevents this reunion from happening because he believes that he can provide a better life and future for a girl. Hence, in his view, the amount of happiness that he and Amanda will receive outweighs Helen’s suffering if she would not reunite with her lost daughter. On the contrary, the amount of happiness for Helen and Amanda is lesser than the amount of suffering that they will go through in the future. Therefore, as a hedonistic utilitarian, Doyle makes an effort to save the girl and keep her under his care.
In conclusion, when Patrick Kenzie learns about the fact that Doyle was keeping Amanda in his apartment, he demands a reunion. When Helen receives her daughter, Kenzie notices that Amanda’s favorite doll’s name is Anabelle, not Mirabelle as claimed by the mother. This points to the fact that Helen is not a good mother and leaves viewers and Kenzie with a thought on whether Doyle was right about his argument that the girl would be happier with him than with Helen. Hence, Gone Baby Gone shows that despite creating a moral dilemma, hedonistic utilitarianism is a valuable philosophical framework that can help make sound decisions that generate more benefit by evaluating the amount of pleasure a certain decision would cause.
Reference
de Lazari-Radek, K., & Singer, P. (2017). Utilitarianism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.