In this case, maybe deontological ethics breaks down and you can go with consequentialism.
Maybe the cancer is melanoma and as it spreads his skin will turn black THEN IT WILL BE OK TO SAY.
Chris Rock has a similar bit: http://youtu.be/_Tc9xWX3wLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5uyq0aMRw0
Is it OK to push a fat man on to the trolley tracks if he is saying the N-word at the time?
Let's put a charitable spin on this. We are, after all, talking about a child; no age specified. I am going to assume that we are talking about -- a 3 year old. For a sprat that age, the N-word means "No." This is a child who went through the terrible twos banned from saying "No." I say, if that is the dying wish, to say "No", "Go for it."
The hypothetical is about a child (age unspecified). I imagine this to be a 3 year old, and for the typical Anglophone child that age, "N-word" means "No". This is a child who went through the terrible-twos forbidden to say "No." If the dying wish is to say "No", I say "Granted."
Oops, sorry. I thought I'd lost the first post.
Mon cher Marcel, I don't want to put a charitable spin on it. the anonymous poser of the question is a jerk and an idiot. The only thing that could possibly be open to question is whether he (I'm betting) is more of a jerk than an idiot or vice versa.
4: Key & Peele are fucking awesome.
The anonymous querent is a very special person, and has done the nation a service by highlighting the plight of racist dying children. These kinds of requests involve a lot of paperwork which must pass through the offices of the Make a Wish Foundation, the NAACP, and Death Row Records before any action can be taken. By the time approval makes its way back to the hospital, nine times out of ten the kid's croaked, the dulcet syllables never to escape his lips.
I thought the original question was satire.
That implies it is possible to express a view on this topic so stupid it is obviously not possible for anybody to hold it in earnest.
What happens if the kid in question then makes a miraculous recovery? His cancer goes in to remission for years, maybe forever, and he is forever known as the one white kid who was allowed to use the N-word? Does he get worshipped as a god, or is he stoned to death by a group of jealous white kids, Shirley Jackson-style?
Wait, maybe the jealous white kids start drinking radium so they too can be lucky like Cancer Boy!
I love the responses to that hypothetical that are basically "That kid is a really racist little shit. They absolutely shouldn't be allowed to get whatever racist shit they want."
What if the kid wasn't racist but a doctor who could cure the kid was?
What if the kid was a racist but the only oncologist in the entire world who could cure him was Ol' Dirty Bastard? Paging Dr. McGirt!
I guess Kool Keith works better, what with being alive and his board-certified expertise in octagonecology.