Causing the death of a human being is sinful. Preventing the death of a human being is virtuous. So, are you morally allowed to risk the death of an unjust assailant (a criminal as opposed to a police officer, for example) in order to protect your own life? In ethics, the standard answer is yes, because you are intending primarily to save a life and not intending primarily to kill the assailant. Thus you must only use as much force as necessary to stop him and may not pursue his death after your own safety has been secured. Although this particular case may seem obvious, there are numerous other applications where this principle is often invoked that are not so obvious. Since this principle (created by St. Thomas Aquinas) is so influential in ethical thinking, I thought it would be useful to explore it and its legitimacy today.Links:
Doctrine of double effect (Wikipedia)
Principle of double effect (Standford)
No comments:
Post a Comment