Suicide In Seven Pounds

Words: 1323
Pages: 6

Every act has an effect on someone or something. One act that is very controversial and affects many people and will continue to do so is the act of suicide. Sometimes families are left without a reason to why their loved ones did what they did. One thing that people may try to figure out later if their act was morally wrong or should that act be even considered a suicide? Like in the case of a solider jumping on a grenade. In the movie Seven Pounds the main character does something some people may not agree with while others may call him a Hero. Seven Pounds deals with suicide throughout the whole movie. Ben Thomas (Will Smith) was planning his own suicide from the start of the movie. He was haunted by his past in which his wife and six others were killed in a car crashed that he caused. He spends most of the movie going around trying to decide if people deserve a gift or not. For some people it’s a house or money but for others it’s a heart or his eyes that he plans on giving away. During the course of the movie he befriends a women who has a heart disease and starts a mini relationship with her. At the end of the movie she is starting to die while waiting for a new heart which will be hard to find one since she has a rare blood type. Ben then takes matters into his own hands and decides to go kill …show more content…
In a way the movie portrays that it was a heroic and good thing to do since he saved others. One way people could look at this problem is through a utilitarian point of view. Utilitarianism is one way to understand morals. The right thing to do would be to do what causes the most happiness or the least amount of sadness. If an action causes the most happiness than that action is now morally required. In Ben’s case some utilitarian’s would look at how many people he saved and said he made the right decision since saving multiple lives is better that just saving