Who’s Worse: The Killer or the Bystander? | Ethics101 Shorts — Transcript

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1. 0:00Tom wanted his wife dead, so he poisoned
2. 0:03her coffee. She drank it. She died.
3. 0:07Murder. Clear, direct, and intentional.
4. 0:12But here's where everything gets murky.
5. 0:15Just like Tom, Joe also hated his wife.
6. 0:18One day, she accidentally poisoned her
7. 0:21own drink, mistaking poison for cream.
8. 0:24Joe was a chemist and he had an antidote
9. 0:26in his pocket. But interestingly, he
10. 0:29washed her drink. He said nothing.
11. 0:33Two deaths, one act of violence, one act
12. 0:36of silence. So who is more guilty?
13. 0:40Utonism focus on consequences. If both
14. 0:43women died, both men bear moral weight.
15. 0:46When it comes to deonttology, it talks
16. 0:48about duty. Joe had the power to prevent
17. 0:51harm. Failing to act may just be as
18. 0:54unethical as causing harm. When it comes
19. 0:57to virtue ethics, it's all about
20. 0:59character. And here the question is what
21. 1:01kind of a person watches someone die and
22. 1:04does nothing. Interestingly, the killer
23. 1:06acted, the bystander allowed it. But in
24. 1:10the end, both let her die and ethics
25. 1:14that makes them equals. Do you agree
26. 1:17that doing harm and allowing harm can be
27. 1:21weighed on the same moral scale?