# Pitting Max\_S

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-max-s/959074>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [February 8, 2022, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-max-s/959074 "2022-02-08T00:26:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 657

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**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-max-s/959074/657 "2022-05-23T18:18:57Z")

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> [@Babale](#):
>
> I think we can both agree that killing someone is, in general, wrong. […] However you arrive at the conclusion that killing another human being is immoral

While I agree, that is a rule of thumb, a heuristic. Properly considered, an act truly devoid of any intention is a mere reflex with as much moral weight as an act of nature. And I have in the past written about the morality of a physical reflex which ends up killing people - I could dig up the post, but the gist of it is that I don’t believe you are culpable. That’s why there are lesser punishments for negligence; negligence is a different _act_.

> [@Babale](#):
>
> But that doesn’t change the fact that the act of killing is a morally negative one, even if in this case it is part of the most morally positive path forward, all things considered.

For the purposes of decision making, morality is relative. If one choice is the most morally positive, it is the moral choice. And as I wrote above, you always have a choice. Even when you are “forced” by the circumstances to do a horrible thing, that means you think the circumstances justify (moralize) what would in other circumstances be an immoral act. To wit, if killing a person is the most morally positive choice, then killing that person becomes moral.

~Max

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