 ”One day a man walks in to the drugstore, at his home, his wife is in bed with a fatal disease. He is without money because he has used every penny; buying his wife medicine, presents and food. He has also had to quit his job to have time to take care of his wife. In the drugstore he finds the new, very expensive medicine that probably will save his wife. In his desperation he jumps up on the desk and down behind it. He sees the next obstacle, the shop assistant. The man hits the shop assistant and reaches to get the new medicine. Finally! He thought. Now I will save my beloved wife.” Rules and consequences Was the man doing the right thing in this situation? Probably most people will say that the man’s acting is right, even though the rules can tell something else. In this case you can find out that the rules contradict each other. There is one rule that says that you are not allowed to steal. And there is on unwritten rule that says that it will be more important to save the wife’s life and less important to follow the rules in this case. The question comes up again, can you say what is right or wrong in an emergency? If you look at the consequences of this case, you definitely can say that the man’s acting is correct. The consequence of his acting is that his wife will get saved. Maybe the shop assistant will get a concussion of the brain but that is not as serious as a fatal disease. But looking at the consequences will also give you problems, just as if you look at the rules. You can ask this question: The best consequence for whom? The man’s acting gives the best consequence for his wife but not for the shop assistant. Justified? There is a phrase that goes like this: ”the end justifies the means”. Can you use that phrase in this case? Yes, I guess you can. The only thing that the man will have on his mind while he walks into the drugstore will be to save his wife. When he sees the new medicine the only thing that he can think of is that he just needs it for the sake of his wife. He means well and walks on his instinct. The phrase will justify the man’s acting. If you consider the man’s acting from this side: ”What will bring most people most happiness, his acting or his unacting?” What answer will you than find? With this view of the problem you also can find a way to justify his acting. It will bring most people most joy and happiness if the wife gets saved. The wife probably has friends and relatives and of course a husband who will become overjoyed when she recovers from her sickness. The shop assistant and perhaps some people around him will became unhappy. But their unhappiness can never reach the same scale as the husband’s sorrow if the wife dies. Again, we have found a theory that can justify the man’s acting. Another point of view Let us look at another point of view. ”What happens if everyone does like the man?” We have to look at the category that this man represents. You are out of money, you have someone close to you that happens to have a fatal disease. And a new medicine is out that can be the rescue. You have to live under the same circumstances as the man. There can’t be much people who is in the same category as the man. And if everyone who happens to be in the same circumstances will do like the man, the world wouldn’t change that much. It isn’t strange if people in their desperation steal something if they can save another person’s life.
 Right or wrong? It can be easy to say what is right or wrong and how to act correct when you’re not under pressure or suffer. You might think that the example in this article is a little bit strange or silly. I’m well aware that this example doesn’t show the reality. If you live in Sweden the example doesn’t show the true reality anyway. But that is not the point either. With this example I just wanted to show how hard it can be to judge someone’s acting if it is right or wrong. Though, I must say that violence is an act that you can’t justify. It is understandable that the man takes the medicine from the drugstore. Of course the main thing is to save a person’s life.  © 2003 Freeway Writer: Märta Söderberg (sp05-38@park.se) HTML by: Jonas Ögren (te04-52@park.se). |