The process involved in the utilitarian approach to addressing moral issues is known as utilitarianism. This approach evaluates the morality of actions based on their outcomes, with the fundamental principle being to maximize overall happiness and minimize suffering. Utilitarianism considers the greatest good for the greatest number of people as the primary criterion for determining ethical behavior.

Utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory that suggests the best action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as that which produces the greatest well-being of the greatest number of people. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how utilitarianism typically approaches moral issues:

1. **Identify the Different Courses of Action:** Begin by outlining all possible actions that could be taken in response to a moral issue.

2. **Consider the Consequences of Each Action:** Analyze the potential outcomes that each action might lead to. In utilitarian ethics, it's important to consider both short-term and long-term consequences.

3. **Determine the Utility of Each Outcome:** Evaluate every potential consequence by estimating the amount of happiness or suffering it is likely to cause. Utility is often equated with happiness, pleasure, or welfare, and can be considered in terms of intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent.

4. **Calculate the Net Utility:** After estimating the positive and negative impacts of each consequence, compute the net utility for each action. This involves adding all the positive utilities and subtracting any negative utilities associated with each action.

5. **Compare the Net Utilities:** Look at the net utilities of all possible actions and compare them. The action with the highest net utility is considered the ethically correct one.

6. **Choose the Action with the Greatest Net Utility:** The action that yields the greatest benefit (highest utility) for the greatest number of people is the one that should be chosen according to utilitarian principles.

7. **Act and Reflect:** Once the decision has been made, the action should be taken. Moreover, utilitarians often reflect on the outcomes to assess whether their predictions about the consequences were accurate, allowing them to improve their decision-making process in the future.

Extra: The origins of utilitarianism can be traced to philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Bentham proposed a quantitative approach to utility (often referred to as "hedonic calculus"), while Mill developed a qualitative take on utilitarianism, emphasizing the distinction between higher and lower pleasures.

One key aspect of utilitarianism is its impartiality – all individuals' happiness counts equally. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which means that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its consequences. It's also a welfarist theory because it focuses on well-being or welfare as the essential elements of the good.

However, utilitarianism has been critiqued for potentially justifying actions that violate individual rights if such actions result in a net increase in happiness. It also faces challenges in actual implementation, such as predicting all possible outcomes and their associated utilities, which can be an inherently complex and uncertain process. Despite such criticisms, utilitarianism remains a widely used framework in economics, public policy, and moral philosophy due to its elegant simplicity and focus on the general welfare.