My 100th Debate: A Duty to Rescue

Thank you for challenging me, bsh1! As some of you may know this is my first serious topic (that my opponent legitimately participates in), so this is going to be exciting. Anyway, let's go over some of the points of negation. I'm going to make a few clarifications to begin with. As my opponent would agree, the empathy one might have for one who needs rescuing does not necessecitate that there is a moral duty to rescue. That is a personal choice or view, but duty must be based in something external to the actor, in this case a principle. Now onto some points of negation: 1) Moral Responsibility and Clarity In order for me to have a duty to rescue, there must be moral responsibility between the moral agents. For example, it would be unreasonable (I'm entirely sure my opponent would agree) for me to be morally responsible for someone that I have no method of helping. At the very least, we can establish that moral responsibility between or among moral agents is limited. So the question becomes where we draw the line. We must also understand that in order for me to rescue another person, I must sacrifice something if mine. If someone trips, I must sacrifice energy, comfort, and time. Obviously, in this scenario at least time is very small, although, I may not necessarily be strong enough to support someone who was falling (comfort and energy). However, I wouldn't know that for sure in certain areas unless I were to try. If I try and realize that I can not support the person falling, it's possible I'll even sacrifice personal health. I do understand that sacrificing health is not under the same definition for duty to rescue as the one my opponent provided, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. The point I wish to convey is that it is often difficult in the smaller cases of rescuing whether or not you are capable of helping or rescuing. Because this is a hard distinction to make, the duty to rescue becomes more muddled. When the ability to rescue is obvious, then it's easy to support that you have a duty to rescue, because it's not a problem. When the ability to rescue is unclear, it is more difficult to make the distinction. Keep in mind that for an ethical standard to be useful, it must be able to be understood. If I don't understand a moral principle I'm supposed to live by, how should I live by it? It would not be reasonable for me to be expected to follow a rule that isn't clear or just doesn't make sense. 2) Duty to Oneself Each person has a clear duty to their own self. Self-preservation is the most basic instinct in humans [1]. Because of this, we can derive that it is a basic fact that it is good to stay alive (since the most basic instincts are one way which we can derive morals). The philosophy that is affirmed by this fact is ethical egoism [2]. Now, according to ethical egoism, each person must act on their own interests. A human's duty is only to his or herself. That is however where the duty ends. This is a clear line that every human can understand when it comes to a duty. This is also the most basic instinct in humans. Because there is no duty to others, there is no ethical duty to rescue. Therefore, as a principle, we cannot uphold that humans have a duty to rescue one another, and I negate the resolution. Thank you for reading. Sources: [1] http://public.wsu.edu... [2] http://plato.stanford.edu...