The situations in which a habitual killer-of-humans will cause death come up more often than the situations in which a habitual letter-of-humans-die will cause death. If you’re a consequentialist who negatively values death, it seems to follow that a habit of killing humans is worse than a habit of letting them die.
I’m not sure I agree that “let-die” situations arise less often than “kill” situations. It seems that every moment you have disposable income (i.e. more than you and yours need to survive) involves a choice between saving someone’s life and not saving anyone’s life.
And yes, if it makes sense to classify what I’m doing right now as choosing not to avert avoidable deaths, it follows that my lifestyle is morally worse (from a consequentialist perspective) than that of a poor murderer.
The situations in which a habitual killer-of-humans will cause death come up more often than the situations in which a habitual letter-of-humans-die will cause death. If you’re a consequentialist who negatively values death, it seems to follow that a habit of killing humans is worse than a habit of letting them die.
Thank you for pointing out this argument.
I’m not sure I agree that “let-die” situations arise less often than “kill” situations. It seems that every moment you have disposable income (i.e. more than you and yours need to survive) involves a choice between saving someone’s life and not saving anyone’s life.
(nods) That’s fair.
And yes, if it makes sense to classify what I’m doing right now as choosing not to avert avoidable deaths, it follows that my lifestyle is morally worse (from a consequentialist perspective) than that of a poor murderer.