Cannibalism

[Pyrrho]

As far as the law is concerned, the matter is settled.

But think about it: Suppose someone threatened me with death, if I refused to torture people to death. Would that make it okay for me to torture people to death? Should I be willing to do anything in order to continue to live?

Or, to use the example of starvation. How would you feel if your child was on the boat with me, and I decided to go against what I have said is right, and I killed him or her in order to eat. Would you be okay with that? Should you be okay with that?

Or think about you being on the boat. If the principle is to be, it is okay to murder someone if one is very, very hungry, then the other people may decide to kill you first. Is that okay with you?

Think about what principles you would like for everyone to follow, and then I think you may come to see the wisdom of the law as it presently stands on this issue.

I'm not sure it's quite as easy as all that. Consider a scenario in which someone puts a gun to person A's head and says "kill B and C or I kill you."

I maintain that:
1) I personally (I think, and I hope) would choose to die rather than to have to kill two people.
2) I'd like for other people to make the same decision
3) I'm not comfortable *forcing* other people, legally, to make that decision.

By no means am I arguing that extreme necessity/duress should be a justification for murder, but I am of the opinion that it should be a legal excuse thereof.

Just a countervailing opinion

It isn't regarded as an excuse in the case of starving to death, as we have already discussed:

http://atheistforums.org/thread-31609-po...#pid880391

http://atheistforums.org/thread-31609-po...#pid880394

If starving to death isn't enough to excuse murder, why would being threatened with being shot in the head?

As for the idea that it should be a legal excuse, I think that would have a bad practical outcome. People would try to use it as an excuse, even in cases in which it was not applicable. After all, how are you going to prove that someone was holding a gun to your head? Obviously, we cannot simply take someone's word for this, or every murderer can claim that someone was holding a gun to their head and "forced" them to do it. As long as there are no witnesses, we cannot prove that that was not the case.

Also, if it were a legal excuse for murder, then one would not be as motivated to try to escape, as one might be killed in the attempt, but one will escape punishment for murder if one simply does as one is told. The law ought not encourage such things. The law should encourage you to try your best to avoid complying with criminal demands.

So I think it would be a very bad idea to allow that as a legal excuse for murder.