Analyze the philosophical significance of the DREAM Act from the perspective of questions about ethics. Complete a one- to two-page analysis of the DREAM Act, using philosophical theories of ethics....

Complete a one- to two-page analysis of the DREAM Act, using philosophical
theories of ethics. This should be the perspective of one of the ethical theories (utilitarianism,
deontology, virtue ethics, and/or existentialism). Explain the specific theory.
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Length: 1-2 pages
1
For two major reasons, the ethical implications of the DREAM Act are complex. The
first is simply that it has been drafted and adapted so many times; having been first
introduced in 2001, it has still not passed congressional muster, having been debated in the
108
th
, 109
th
, and 110
th
congress to no avail, most recently in 2009 (“DREAM Act…”, 2009).
As a result, any clear effect that it would have has been muddied by compromise. Secondly, it
is a hot-button issue, which people tend to analyse with ethical stances based upon emotional,
rather than evidential, conviction.
As a result of this complexity, the most appropriate ethical frame to analyse it with is
utilitarianism, both in its classical Bentham and Mill sense of „the greatest good for the
greatest number‟ and in a more economic cost-benefit analysis. Only by avoiding the
abstracted, non-contextual ethics of deontology or the overly personal virtue ethics model, a
conclusion can be reached. This is true for legislation in general, which is too complex to be
treated in such simple models.
The thesis of this paper is that the DREAM Act is necessary; it serves a variety of
pragmatic, utilitarian goods without creating additional...