To understand why the ends don’t justify the means we need to emphasize that utilitarian ends are focused on the collective or aggregate good. Utilitarian- ism is concerned with the well-being of the whole. This is one of the things that makers utilitarianism attractive to public policy makers. But many of us have a deep commitment to the dignity of individuals. We believe that individuals should not be used as a mere means to the greater overall good. A prominent way of explaining this is to say that individuals have rights that should not be sacrificed simply to produce a net increase in the collective good.