Scenario: A genius surgeon who has saved hundreds of lives murders someone to cover up a mistake they made. Should s/he be sent to prison?

Poll - Total Votes: 5

Justice is saving hundreds, thousands of lives.

Justice is protecting society from a potential murderer

Justice is punishing the wicked

You can only vote on one answer.

What is justice in this scenario? Should s/he be put in prison for 20 to life? What is more important? Saving hundreds, thousands of lives; protecting society from a potential murderer (even though everyone is a potential murderer); or, punishing the wicked?

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SW-User

What is more important is that murderers continue to be removed from society, and if it costs a few hundred or a few thousand lives, it's well worth that price because the alternative is much worse.

Tatsumi · 31-35, M

What is the alternative?

SW-User

@ColdPenguin: A society where murder's okay and nobody's safe.

Tatsumi · 31-35, M

@crossproduct: I'm not seeing much of a difference between right now and then. 😶 Anybody could still murder anybody. You could make a few exceptions for the super geniuses, and it wouldn't spell the doom of civilization. Nay, it would probably help society and heal more people.

SW-User

I'm not really into utilitarianism is all.

Tatsumi · 31-35, M

@crossproduct: So how do you feel about legal drugs or prostitution? Even if they proved to be beneficial to society and reduce deaths, disease, and crime, would you still not want them to be legal on some moral basis?

SW-User

@ColdPenguin: I don't think there's anything inherently immoral about those things though.

Tatsumi · 31-35, M

@crossproduct: Okay. Well, that's good. What about rape? What if the genius surgeon didn't murder anyone, but they did rape someone?

SW-User

@ColdPenguin: Sorry, surgeon goes to the slammer for that. If justice isn't applied equally, people lose respect for the rule of law.

Tatsumi · 31-35, M

@crossproduct: Okay. Fair point. But, they wouldn't have to know. 😶 And you could keep tabs on him/her, make sure they were a registered sex offender or something. Thousands of people would die.