Some musings on moral responsibility
From the window behind the computer at
which I write Ethical Musings, I can see the busy intersection at which a
speeding driver last week killed three pedestrians and injured five other
people. He was fleeing police who had sought to stop him for a prior traffic violation;
police also think that the man was driving while intoxicated. Nine lives were
inalterably changed, including that of the perpetrator who was seriously
injured and now faces multiple manslaughter and other criminal charges.
From late December to early April, I occasionally
see humpback whales apparently cavorting and spouting. When whales are spotted
offshore, small boats and the two vessels that thrice daily take people out for
an excursion and meal at sea congregate. Federal regulations mandate that boats
stay a prescribed distance from whales and not otherwise interfere with the
whales. Of course, the whales don’t know the federal rules and may violate
those rules by approaching a stopped boat too closely. And, the truth is that
nobody knows what a whale thinks. From a whale’s perspective, at what distance
will a boat not interfere with a whale? Do whales sometimes enjoy humans?
A common thread – responsibility – links
those two diverse views.
Determining the drunken driver’s individual
responsibility requires ascertaining whether the driver is an alcoholic, a
person addicted to alcohol who cannot control her or his drinking. If an alcoholic,
then the driver suffers from a disease. One of the twelve steps toward recovery
is to take responsibility for those the alcoholic has harmed, including himself.
Yet castigating the driver, if he is an addict, for alleged immoral behavior
(driving while drunk) may impede rather than aid the driver’s progress toward
sobriety. Multiple convictions for driving under the influence is one indicator
that points toward addiction. The addict, in any event, must take
responsibility for his or her recovery. Being sick is not an excuse for
refusing to get well. Alcoholism is a treatable disease.
If the driver is not an alcoholic,
determining responsibility is simpler: the driver acted irresponsibly in
drinking excessively and then driving while intoxicated. Clear evidence shows a
substantial link between driving under the influence and harming others.
In both sets of circumstances, our
criminal justice system appropriately holds the driver accountable for his
actions. Too often, people regard accountability as the first step toward
punishment. More helpfully, accountability is the first step toward treatment
for the addict and prevention of further episodes of drunk driving by the addict
and non-addict alike. Learning that actions have consequences is vital in
either case.
Incidentally, imprisonment in Hawaii
costs between fifty and sixty thousand dollars per year per inmate. The median
income in Hawaii is about fifty thousand dollars per year. Imprisonment that
serves no preventive or deterrent purpose is a costly error because no punitive
sentence – imprisonment, execution, or anything else – can restore those killed
to life or those injured to their pre-accident health. Tax dollars spent on
punishment may help victims or their families to feel better, but have few if
any benefits for the larger community. Tax dollars spent on restorative justice
benefit the offender, victims and their families, and the larger community.
Determining human responsibility with
respect to whales is much more difficult. Humans cannot speak to whales. Thus, knowing
what a whale thinks or feels is impossible. However, scientific research is
expanding our knowledge of actions, intentional or unintentional, that may harm
whales and how to avoid those actions. Regulations directing vessels to
maintain a theoretical safe distance from whales illustrates an effort to be
ecologically responsible in spite of incomplete, sometimes inaccurate
information.
Limited information and wisdom
(knowledge of how to live well) similarly effects good faith efforts to make
responsible decisions about many things, e.g., parenting and the potential
harms/benefits of new products.
So, what is moral responsibility?
Moral responsibility requires some
degree both of awareness that an act is wrong and of ability to avoid that
action. In retrospect, I know that painting the exterior of houses with lead
paint was environmentally hazardous. At the time, I had no such knowledge nor
was that information commonly available. I could have refused to use lead-based
paint, but that would have bewildered my customers and cost me at least some of
the jobs I had sought. Alternatively, as a Navy chaplain on active duty, I believed
at the time, and continue to believe, that some Navy policies were wrong. However,
even though I raised my voice in protest, I had no power to change those
policies. By staying in the Navy, I may be morally complicit in those policies
(e.g., the Navy’s prior policy of discharging gays) but am not morally responsible
for those policies.
Abundant living entails pausing to
reflect on ordinary and extraordinary occurrences.
·
For what actions am I clearly
morally responsible? In those situations, what can I do to act more morally?
·
For what actions am I morally
complicit but not personally morally responsible? What, if any, steps can I take
to become less complicit or to change the situation such that it results in
more moral outcomes?
·
For what actions do I lack
moral autonomy? What steps can I take to become more autonomous and then choose
a more moral path? (One immense difficulty is that humans generally lack
sufficient self-awareness to know when one has autonomy and when one’s choice
is determined by genetics, nurture, and other factors entirely beyond one’s
control.)
·
For what actions do I have
incomplete or perhaps inaccurate information, causing me to make poor or even
immoral choices? How can I, if it is possible, obtain better, more complete
information? (Humans generally cannot foretell the future to know with
certainty the future consequences of an action taken in the present.)
Always, I remember Jesus’ words: Go and
sin no more. I wish life were as simple as that exhortation seems to suggest!
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