This has two elements: firstly, the breach of the duty of care must relate to the risk of death (confirmed in R v Singh ), and not to any lesser harm.
Many philosophers have argued for deontological constraints prohibiting murdering some to save others, as in Bridge; they regard the case of diverting a public threat toward lesser harm, as in Trolley, as an exception, and offer principled reasons for doing so, thus justifying our treating the two cases differently (e.g., Thomson 1985).
The choices for a judge are often limited to the lesser harm rather than the greater good.
The fourth area of novelty in the ethics of the Dialectics concerns an aspect of practical reasoning that the Mohists call "weighing" (quan).[7] "Weighing" typically involves judging which of several alternative ends or courses of action is of greater benefit and lesser harm, and thus should determine how we act.
29 We assigned a single loss of quality of life to all forms of surgery but acknowledge that lesser harms are likely with lumpectomy than with mastectomy.
But it is doubtful that many would seek to introduce US-style fetal homicide laws, as adopted by 38 states 18 much less those holding mothers-to-be criminally responsible for behaviours such as drug and alcohol abuse that produce lesser harms.
If the harm brought about by an act of torture is a lesser evil than the harm done by an act of killing then, other things being equal, the latter is morally worse than the former.
"They will always face a lesser charge — manslaughter, grievous bodily harm," she said.
This was done to avoid the possibility of harming what was considered a lesser expendable, highly prized stunt horse.
Yawning, likewise, does not, in a dog, indicate boredom but may be a gesture on the part of a dominant dog to a lesser one that it does not intend him harm.
