Is letting people die as bad as killing them?

Xin Rong

Xin Rong

Killed by Dissertation
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Hi everyone i take philosophy and we where talking about this today, i would like to know what everyone thinks and please give examples because im hoping to use them next week in my lesson, thanks, love you all loads.

Anyways i think to some extent letting people die is as bad as killing them for example if like Tru Davies you know someone is going to murder someone else but you dont save them then you are potentially taking a life and ruining the life of the murdered who will spend a lot of time in jail. However this can be blown out of porportion for example if you dont gav money to a charity which helps people in 3rd world countries and then a child dies of hunger, is it your fault, what does everyone think.

Love Xx Cheeky Me xX
 
Good point Vampire slayer. So is letting people die is as bad as killing them. I would say no. Because if you are killing someone you did the crime. And yes I don't think if you knew someone was going to get murdered you shouldn't just not care you should try to do something. But I don't think it is as bad as Killing someone. Also you said that this can be blown out of proportion for example if you don't gave money to a charity which helps people in 3rd world countries and then a child dies of hunger, is it your fault? I would have to say no. Cuz you have no idea that this happened. Hope this helps.
 
There's degrees of it. Charity is different, since it's more or less beyond your control where exactly the money goes etc....

Letting somebody die if you could have genuinely done more to help them is wrong. Not as wrong as actively killing them. But, to rob Spiderman's motto and Jillify it, if you have reason to believe you have the means to prevent the killing, you also have a responsibility to do so. To make a proper answer, we need more specifics. Would acting put us in physical danger?
 
I don't think letting someone die is as bad as killing.. It's as bad for the person who dies, but not for you.. Course you should help someone if you can, but it's not your responsibility in the same way as if you commit murdur..
 
The way i see it is if your letting someone die, that is like killing them.
Example, in a local high school, a kid told his friend he was going to kill the principal. And he did, one day he walked in and shot the principal in the head. (true story...we had to go into lock down for it and we were like 20 miles away)
The person that knew about said that they felt guilty. That they felt like they were responsible for the deaths of that day. And the way I see it, they were, they didnt take it into their own hands and realize they should tell someone...even if the person who made the threat was "joking".
Now, in like the charity example that was raised, you can't blame yourself for that, you can't blame your self of killing that person. Cause you didn't.
If someone's dying on the side of the road and you just keep on driving. Most people are going to feel like they killed that person, when the see the article in the newspaper that says 'local man found dead on the side of the road' and you kinda are. Not that you put them in that situation in life, but you left them there.
If you kill a person it's worse than letting someone die, obviously, because you were the one who put them in the situation.

Sorry, my thoughts are all jumbled.
 
PainbowPaige said:
The person that knew about said that they felt guilty. That they felt like they were responsible for the deaths of that day. And the way I see it, they were, they didnt take it into their own hands and realize they should tell someone...even if the person who made the threat was "joking".
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Yes, but if you say that's as bad as killing.. You mean that the person who killed and the person who heard about it are equally responsible.. Do you think they are..?
 
What about euthanasia? I completely support it.

And in no way can killing someone be equal to letting someone die. Letting someone die means you did nothing. Guilt out of nothing? No way. Medieval morals....
 
the idea, according to my teacher is you yourself present a scenario where it is and one where it isnt, aka supporting your theorys or whatever, hey thanks guys, you have really helped me a lot
 
Faith/willowfan said:
the idea, according to my teacher is you yourself present a scenario where it is and one where it isnt, aka supporting your theorys or whatever, hey thanks guys, you have really helped me a lot
Click to expand...

It's not an easy question to answer without examples. There are many extraordinary circumstances and things to take into consideration. You could say that I'm letting people die by not donating money to feed the hungry...is that as bad as killing someone...most people would say no...but its very ambiguos in terms of a moral question.
 
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