The Principle of Double Effect

Applications
- Certain rare cases in abortion
-Administering pain-killing medication at the end of life
-Self-defense
-Civilian causalities during war

The Principle
A person may licitly perform an action that he foresees will produce a good effect and a bad effect
provided that four conditions are verified at one and the same time:
- that the action in itself from its very object be good or at least indifferent;
- that the good effect and not the evil effect be intended;
- that the good effect be not produced by means of the evil effect;
- that there be a proportionately grave reason for permitting the evil effect (1949, p. 43).
- [no other way to good effect]

1. The action in itself from its very object be good or at least indifferent
- The action cannot be something that is evil in itself.
- Torture, for example, would not be justified according to this principle.
- Performing surgery to remove a life-threatening uterine cancer from a pregnant
woman may be permitted, since the action is not evil in itself, even though it may
incidentally cause an abortion.

2. The good effect and not the evil effect be intended;
- The intention of the action must always be to bring about the good effect.
- Example: Giving increasingly high doses of morphine at the end of life to relieve
suffering, even though this might bring about end of life.

3. The good effect be not produced by means of the evil effect
- The evil effect (e.g., abortion) can only be an incidental by-product of the act, not the means to the good
effect.

4. There be a proportionately grave reason for permitting the evil effect
Cannot be used in trivial cases.
- Example: can justify bringing about an abortion in the case of someone with life-
threatening cancer, but not in the case of someone who simply needs minor
surgery.

5. There must be no another way to accomplish the end
- If there is a way of accomplishing the same end that does not cause the bad effect, then that way must
be used.
- For example, if the pain can be eliminated through other means than morphine without running the risk
of death, then the other means must be used.