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Ethics and Values / Unit 8   Ethics 356 short lesson, about 20 seconds

The Rescue Principle

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The idea

Singer's principle: "if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it."

In practice

Applied globally, the principle converts affluence into obligation: prevention within power, at bearable cost, owed — borders and oceans notwithstanding.

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