Can the End Justify the Means?
-The general sense: it is not justifiable; laws give limits to what should be allowed and what should not be considered as justifiable.(Normal rules in laws do not overlook the means for the ends.)
**However, it is necessary to think of it in a more specific way: cases where this idea of the justification of means is a dilemma
1. Cases in life where the ends can be more prioritized over the means
i) Ambulance
-the ambulance doesn't follow the general rules of the traffic order
-there is a law actually considering the urgency of the car, enabling the ambulance to have an excuse
-the set rules are only active when there is a patient on the board.
*still this case is that an example of which the normal street laws are bent for the purpose of saving a life: but in some cases when the patient isn't that much in a serious status, we need to ask whether it is THAT necessary to break the normal law on the road.
ii) White lies
-lies are normally seen as not justifiable, however the term 'white lie' goes against this thought.
-white lies are lies told to others with the reasoning of not making them hurt their feelings.
-also the placebo effect can be categorized as a white lie.
*the placebo effect: actually this method of remedy, using flour based medicine in order to TRICK the patients to use their mental power is actually not justifiable. What the patient wants is a proper cure, and we can see that these doctor misused the different information that they have and what the opponent has.
*officially, the method using the placebo effect is not considered legal in most cases of the US and also S.Korea.
2. Cases in which the focusing of the ends led to disasters.
i) The melamine incident
-several years ago, China was under a discussion due to their act of using melamine in baby products
-after the truth revealed, China faced many hardships and was asked to change the current system in making baby cream and milk.
-this situation can be viewed to be a case of where China had a problem of ignoring the moralities in making products, only focusing on the ends of reducing the entire cost of production.
ii) The Death Note
-although it is a Japanese anime, the concept of trying to eliminate all the criminals something we should talk about.
-in the anime, the main character finds a notebook that has the power the kill anyone with who has their name on the note.
-the main character, Laito decides to eradicate all the criminal masterminds in the entire world.
*the problem of this anime is that whether it is justifiable to actually kill people if these people are considered dangerous and a civil menace. Laito himself, dies at the end of the comic series, making us ponder what he did was justifiable at all.
DEBATE
1) The wrongdoings and the contributions of the president Park.
2) The problems regarding life and death in the cases introduced by Michael Sandel.
