The Effects of Our Actions

White: Well, what would you say about the man who jumps into the icy sea because there are too many people on the life-raft? Is he guilty of committing suicide?

Green: That is different. The immediate effect of his action is that the life-raft becomes lighter and is in less danger of sinking. So unless he intends to commit suicide, he does not do so.

White: Perhaps we can agree, them, that even if I do something that will certainly cause a person's death I am not necessarily responsible for wrongful killing, i.e., murder. In other words, I can be responsible for causing a bad effect, without being responsible for wrongdoing.

Black: That seems to be a reasonable conclusion. But I am not too clear about this notion of "immediate effect". For example, there is the old problem about the warship that is guarding a convoy of merchant ships. Some ships are attacked by a submarine and are sinking. In order to escape, the captain of the warship orders his ship "full steam ahead". He knows that as a result life-boats will be swamped or run down and men will be drowned. Is the death of these men the immediate effect of his action?

Brown: It seems that there are two equally immediate effects, one that the warship begins to escape, the other that the men in the water are killed or drowned. Many of our actions have two equally immediate effects - when I give a present to a friend, I impoverish myself materially while I enrich my friend.

Black: Or there is the case of the woman who, during a famine, starves herself to keep her children alive. A time comes when she knows that if she continues to deprive herself of food she will die. Is her refusal to eat the immediate cause of her death? Is she guilty of committing suicide?

Brown: This notion of "immediate effect" is certainly not too clear. There can be two or even more immediate effects. The effects can be temporarily immediate, physically immediate, and there can be the psychological and moral effects on the agent himself. Instead of looking at the problem as a matter of cause and effect, let us look at the purposes and means employed, that is, at the intentions and choices of the agent, and their effects.