Mandatory rescue killings

Journal of Political Philosophy

Volumn 15, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 363-384

  Fabre, Cécile ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 36148994011     PISSN: 09638016     EISSN: 14679760     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00282.x     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. I am grateful to Alejandro Chehtman, Axel Gosseries, Cécile Laborde, David Lloyd Thomas, Dan McDermott, Tamar Meisels, Véronique Munoz-Dardé, Anne Phillips, Amy Reed, Saul Smilansky, Alex Voorhoeve and two anonymous referees for The Journal of Political Philosophy for very helpful written comments on earlier drafts. I would also like to thank the members of the Nuffield Political Theory Workshop and the LSE Political Philosophy and Philosophy and Public Policy Seminars for useful discussions on the issues addressed here.
2. G. P. Fletcher Defensive force as an act of rescue Social Philosophy and Policy, 7 (1990 170 9.
3. One might think that being permitted to do x implies that one has the right to do so, and vice versa. However, rights, or so I assume here, correlate with duties, so that to have a right to do x means that others are under a duty to let us do x. Just as one can sometimes be permitted to do something which others are not under a duty to let us do (as is the case, for example, in Hobbes's state of nature), one can sometimes have the right to do something which one is not permitted to do (as is asserted, for example, by those who, on the one hand, believe that reading pornographic material is morally wrong and, on the other hand, maintain that others should let us do it if we so wish).
4. J. J. Thomson Self-defence Philosophy and Public Affairs, 20 (1991 283 310 McMahan Self-defence and the problem of the innocent attacker Ethics, 104 (1994 252 90 Otsuka Killing the innocent in self-defence Philosophy and Public Affairs, 23 (1994 74 94.
5. E. Anderson What is the point of equality? Ethics, 109 (1999 287 337 Frankfurt Equality as a moral idea Ethics, 98 (1987 21 43 Malm Liberalism, bad Samaritan law, and legal paternalism Ethics, 106 (1995 4 31 Malm Bad Samaritan laws: harm, help, or hype? Law and Philosophy, 19 (2000 707 50.
6. I owe this objection to Axel Gosseries.
7. See, for example, the recent study on conviction rates for rape, commissioned by the UK Home Office; L. Kelly, J. Lovett and L. Regan, A Gap or a Chasm? Attrition in Reported Rape Cases (London: Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, February 2005). According to this study, in the UK, only 5% or so of reported rapes result in convictions.
8. Malm, "Bad Samaritan laws." She also expresses the worry that Bad Samaritan laws might result in wrongful convictions.
9. I owe this point to an anonymous referee for The Journal of Political Philosophy.
10. H. LaFollette Gun control Ethics, 110 (2000 263 81.
11. There is another important difference between someone who is not under a moral duty to kill in defence of V in the first instance, and someone who is under a moral duty to do so but is granted exemption from the corresponding legal duty on grounds of conscience. In the latter case (but not in the former), in so far as R ex hypothesi owes something to V, he may be asked to provide something by way of compensation, and in lieu of this specific service, by way of a special tax, for example, or of some alternative service, just as conscientious objectors to the military draft are usually required to perform a civilian service.
12. T. Nagel Moral conflict and legitimacy Philosophy and Public Affairs, 16 (1987 215 40
13. For an argument along similar lines, see J. Raz, The Authority of the Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), ch. 15.
14. In Chapter 4 of my Whose Body is it Anyway?, I argue that organ donors can raise conscientious objections to being made to provide their organs to those who need them even if potential recipients will die as a result. As my argument in this article implies, I no longer believe that this is true.
15. This objection was raised by an anonymous referee for The Journal of Political Philosophy.