mellowtigger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mellowtigger) wrote2011-02-01 07:22 am
mellowtigger) wrote2011-02-01 07:22 am
Entry tags:
poll: who's to blame?
Don't google. All comments are screened until I post the results on Wednesday, so you can't be influenced by others' answers.
Scenario: Janet and a friend are kayaking in a part of ocean with many jellyfish. The friend asks Janet if she should go for a swim. Janet has just read that the jellyfish in the area are harmless, and tells her friend to go for a swim. The friend is stung by a jellyfish and dies.
Q: Is Janet morally responsible for her friend's death?
Scenario: Janet and a friend are kayaking in a part of ocean with many jellyfish. The friend asks Janet if she should go for a swim. Janet has just read that the jellyfish in the area are harmless, and tells her friend to go for a swim. The friend is stung by a jellyfish and dies.
Q: Is Janet morally responsible for her friend's death?
no subject
Morally, to me, means that some degree of purposeful forethought went into it. Since this was an accident, the moral responsibility would be nil. But there is still a causal relationship between my words (and ignorance) and the death. This would imply -to me, at least- an ethical responsibility to some degree.