Law And Morality

Law and Morality

It is not an everyday occurrence that someone must decide the fate of another's life. The dilemma of making a decision that someone must die in order for the others to survive, can obviously be troubling. The process in which the termination of one's life may be easy to make, but to justify that decision is the most difficult one. This paper is given a situation in which a decision of taking one's life is essential. The situation is that a nuclear war has occurred, which has destroyed most of the centres of civilization. There are five people that are that have escaped death by finding their way to a nuclear bunker. These five people consist of a pregnant woman; an old man, who is a retired judge; two teenagers - a fourteen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl; and a young and healthy woman who is a doctor. They all have been there for fifteen days and they must remain there for an additional fifteen days before they can be rescued.

The problem is that although there are five of them in the bunker, there is only enough food for four people to survive for the remaining fifteen days. Rationing the food will not be of any use, because all will die with such a plan. The only way for most of the survivors to live for the next fifteen days is for one to die. Somehow they have contacted an outside source to advise them on the questions of "Who shall die?", and "How should the decision of choosing the person be carried out?" These are all very difficult questions to answer, but something must be done. It is unlikely that someone will voluntarily allow someone to kill them so that the others may live, that is why another form of decision making must be allowed. The best way to do so is probably by that outside aid to suggest that they try drawing lots. For example whoever pulls the shortest straw is the one who dies. With no time to procrastinate, this would seem the most time efficient and fairest way to choose who will die. Of course a reason must be provided to the person who had drawn the shortest straw, and that is the objective of this paper. This essay will explain how the decision will be made that will ultimately take one of the survivor's lives to save the remaining four people. From that explanation of the decision made, it will attempt to justify it. This paper proposes to explain and justify the decision by usin...

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...ndition. It is unfortunate that there are cases in which people, whether or not they know each other, must kill someone else to save their own life. It must be even more disturbing, rather than unfortunate, for a person to sacrifice their life for the welfare of another, nevertheless it is noble. Perhaps this goes to show that when it is absolutely necessary to kill someone in order to preserve one's own life, murder is always justifiable. Works Cited

1 Patrick Fitzgerald and King Mc Shane. Looking at Law: Canada's Legal System.

4th ed. (Ottawa: Tri-Graphic Printing Ltd.) 1994. Pg.3.

2 Carleton Dept. Of Law Casebook Group. Introduction to Legal Studies 2nd ed. .

(North York: Captus Press Inc.) 1995. Pg.24.

3 Carleton Dept. Of Law Casebook Group. Introduction to Legal Studies 2nd ed. .

(North York: Captus Press Inc.) 1995. Pgs.19-24.

4 Fraser, D. Fall Term Law Notes for 51.100A. (Carleton University) 1996.

5 Fraser, D. Fall Term Law Notes for 51.100A. (Carleton University) 1996.

6 Carleton Dept. Of Law Casebook Group. Introduction to Legal Studies 2nd ed. .

(North York: Captus Press Inc.) 1995. Pg.25.

7 Fraser, D. Fall Term Law Notes for 51.100A. (Carleton University) 1996.