Ethics versus utilitarianismEthics is an ethical theory concerned with duties and rights. The founder of deontological ethics was a German philosopher named Immanuel Kant. Kant's deontological perspective implies that people are sensitive to moral duties that require or prohibit certain behaviors, regardless of the consequences (Tanner, Medin, & Iliev, 2008). The main objective of ethics is duty: ethics is derived from the Greek word deon, which means duty. A duty is a morally mandated action, for example the duty to never lie and always keep one's word. According to Kant, even when individuals do not want to act within the scope of their duty, they are ethically obligated to do so (Rich, 2008). Kant believed that consequences were irrelevant and that an individual should do what he wanted at that moment. An example would be a person going to their neighbor's house when they were gone to turn on the heating so that when they return home it will be warm. One of the consequences of turning on their heat was that their house burned down, but according to Kant, since your intentions were good, you cannot be at fault. Kant also believed that every person has dignity and should not treat others as a means to their personal ends (Rich, 2008). In other words, don't treat others as an instrument to achieve a goal. For example, a researcher who risks the well-being of an individual participating in an experiment in order to find a drug that could save many lives. Kant made a distinction between two types of duties which are hypothetical imperatives and categorical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives are rules or duties that people must follow to achieve certain goals. Hypothetical imperatives are sometimes called “if-then” imperatives, which are conditions that fall under claim rights, with the exception of liberty rights in health care (Butts, 2008). Federal and state social programs will help ensure that their demands are met and preserved (Butts, 2008). To put social rights in a broader perspective, I will give an example. A woman arrives at the emergency room and she is undoubtedly in active labor. Even if she doesn't have medical insurance, the triage nurse will admit her. Here, the hospital has a duty to care for her until the delivery is over. In short, social rights and freedom rights are very important to the nursing profession. As nurses, our duty is to always protect the moral rights of our patients. With the right to liberty, it is our duty to protect the lives of our clients, and with the right to social assistance, our duty is to save our clients from potential danger, even death..