Moral Objectivism: Doctrine of Double Effect

What should you do when an action has two possible outcomes or effects so that you cannot do solely good, without causing evil (or at least bad) consequences? The “Trolley Problem '' poses the question of what you would do if a runaway trolley will hit and kill four people. However, you can divert the train to save the four original people but it would kill an innocent bystander. This is a similar problem to that described in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, when Jean Valjean broke the law and stole bread in order to feed his starving nieces. This causes the moral objectives that apply to all people, in all social settings, at all times into a situation of ethical situationalism when different ethical principles come into conflict with one another. This Doctrine of Double Effect is a moral conflict that occurs when you cannot do good without bringing about evil consequences. A real-life example of this is the June 2003 rail disaster that occurred when a string of train cars escaped from a Montclair California freight yard and rolled downhill toward Los Angeles. Saint Thomas Aquinas described the four conditions of a morally permissible act within the Doctrine of Double Effect.

0:00 Introduction
0:17 What should you do when an action has two outcomes (effects)?
1:21 What happens when you cannot do good, without causing evil consequences?
3:50 Ethical Situationism
4:52 Doctrine of Double Effects
5:34 June 2003 Montclair CA train disaster
8:33 4 conditions of a morally permissible act within the Doctrine of Double Effect

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