PHLB05H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Egotism, Russian Roulette, Natural Disaster
Document Summary
Singer: we have a duty to prevent something bad from happening if we can do so without sacrificing something of comparable moral significance: we should not let people die, controversial. Killing involves taking some action that causes a person"s death (i. e. , push them overboard) Letting die involves refraining from some actions that causes a person death (i. e. , not throwing them a life boat to save them) Nell: we have a duty not to kill: a much less controversial premise, distinct from the idea that we should prevent deaths from occurring in general. Nell: our duty not to kill grounds obligations to the global poor. Set up: limitations to the duty not to kill. The duty not to kill can be overridden in several circumstances: 1) unavoidable killing, 2) self-defense. 2) the right not to be killed self-defense: we may kill someone in self-defense. We may only kill in self-defense if killing is the necessary means to our survival.
