d States against the civilian population of Japan in the Second World War was justified. It was said that the tens of thousands of civilian deaths caused by the nuclear weapons shortened the war, and, thus, saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. That utilitarian assessment was made by the winners of the war, not by the losers.
The Japanese did not accept the utilitarian justification of the mass annihilation of civilians, and that refusal points up another two additional dilemmas associated with utilitarian evaluations. First, that which may be considered as a good outcome by one may not be considered to be good by another. Second, to many people, a net positive outcome cannot justify what is, at its root, an unacceptable act. This last point is perceived by animal protection proponents as being particularly relevant to the issue of the use of non human animals in medical and other scientific experimentation.
Yet another significant problem affecting utilitarian evaluation is the identification of the consequences of an act.
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