poll: who's to blame?
2011-Feb-01, Tuesday 07:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerDon'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
Date: 2011-Feb-02, Wednesday 04:41 am (UTC)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.