Killing and Letting Die

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Killing and Letting Die
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• Two ways of being involved in someones death
• killing
• letting die
• Is one worse than the other?

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Most people assume that killing is worse than
letting die--and most philosophers
agree. However, some philosophers think that,
from a moral point of view, they are the same.
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• What difference does it make?
• Duty to give aid (e.g. famine relief)
• Euthanasia

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The Equivalence Thesis There is no moral
difference between killing and letting die. The
bare fact that one act is an act of killing,
while another act is an act of letting die, is
not a reason for judging one to be better or
worse than the other.
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• Three Arguments in Favor of the Equivalence
  Thesis
• It makes no difference to the person who dies.
• The Argument from The Black Box

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The Argument from Parallel Cases A pair of cases
is described, and then the argument goes If
there was an important moral difference between
killing and letting die, then what X did would be
worse than what Y did. But what X and Y did were
equally bad. Therefore, there is no important
moral difference between killing and letting die.
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• Four attempts to explain why killing is worse
  than letting die
• Cause of Death
• Dischargeability
• Optionality
• Intentions