Doing vs. allowing harm

Abstract

Is there a moral difference between doing harm and merely allowing harm? If not, there should be no moral objection to activeeuthanasia in circumstances where passive euthanasia is permissible;and there should be no objection to bombing innocent civilians wheredoing so will minimize the overall number of deaths in war. Thereshould, however, be an objection-indeed, an outcry-at ourfailure to prevent the deaths of millions of children in the thirdworld from malnutrition, dehydration, and measles. Moreover, it seems that the question is pertinent to whetherconsequentialism is true, as consequentialists believe that doing harmis no worse than merely allowing harm while anti-consequentialists,almost universally, disagree. But is there a moral difference betweendoing harm and merely allowing harm? We might divide approaches tothis question into two broad kinds. First, those that attempt toanswer it without saying anything about the nature of the distinctioneither by use of examples (’the contrast strategy’) or byappealing to considerations that are purportedly independent of theprecise nature of distinction. And, second, those that analyze thedistinction in depth and try to show that its underlying naturedictates an answer to the moral question.