The principle of double effect Flashcards
What is the principle of double effect?
One act can have two effects, one intended and the other accidental. For example, killing someone in self-defence both saves your life and also takes the life of the aggressor. In this example, it is in line with the PP’s as long as no more force than necessary was used to save your life.
What are the 4 conditions needed to fulfil the principle of double effect?
1) nature of the act condition: The action itself must be morally good or neutral and not evil, like lying or killing someone intentionally.
2) means-end condition: the bad effect must not be the means by which the good effect is achieved.
3) right intention condition: the intention must only be to achieve the good effect, whilst the bad effect must be an unintended side effect.
4) proportionality condition:the good effect must be at least equivalent in importance to the bad effect.
Does double effect actually work?
.Many argue that intention is irrelevant; as long as there are good consequences, the act is good, no matter the intentions.
.Double effect rules that torturing 1 innocent person to save millions is wrong as it goes against the means-end condition, but if a ruler permitted the deaths of 1 million people out of refusal to torture 1 person, they would be accused of culpable homicide on a grand scale - counter: At what point does torture become permissible? to save 10, 100, or 1000? If no sensible answer can be given, then torture should never be permissible.
.Double effect seems counter intuitive - AQ held that it is unlawful to tell a lie in any situation, even to save a life, but this goes against our intuition as who would rather let someone die then tell a lie?
