A Moral Theory’s Immoral Outcome

Many philosophical defenders of the Roman Catholic natural-law tradition argue that there are no exceptions to the prohibition on killing an innocent human being. But the case of a 22-year-old El Salvadorian woman, identified in the media only as Beatriz, makes the absoluteness of that view difficult to defend.

PRINCETON – Is it always wrong to take an innocent human life? Many philosophical defenders of the Roman Catholic natural-law tradition argue that there are no exceptions to this prohibition, at least if we are talking about taking the life intentionally, and directly, rather than as a side effect of some other action. (These moral theorists also define “innocent” to exclude enemy combatants, as long as the war one is fighting is just.)

https://prosyn.org/hhqGTBu