Principle of Double Effect

C. Sending children into prostitution to feed a starving family.

1. Do they raise questions about whether natural law adequately addresses moral issues?

Somehow it does raise questions because protitution is not natural, it is not morally good. It is evil in
ways that excessively promote the dark and unjust desires of people who gain from it and people
who are encouraged by the idea. Although the reason in the example is to feed a starving family
meaning that the sacrifice of the children will not be in vain, the moral issue is still not addressed.
Both the positive and negative effects still take effect because the prostitution of the children still
happens and the starving family will be fed.

2. Are there any problems with it that you notice?

The natural law promotes the idea of “do good and avoid evil” yet in the example the evil wasn’t
avoided, there could be other ways to feed the starving family yet it hasn’t been done because the
idea is to send the children to prostitution, therefore evil wasn’t avoided it has somehow prevailed. It
differs from abortion because somehow abortion also saves the baby, since maybe the mother
cannot or will not be able to support the baby adequately due to the conditions she is facing. This
means that the infant will then have a difficult start in life.

3. How far do you agree with the doctrine of double effect as a feature of natural law?

I do agree and believe all the elements that satisfy the doctrine of the double effect because I do
believe that life is not all black and white. It isn’t simple or linear like how sexuality is for example, it
is not how people believe it as it is. Sexuality is not simple and controlled. As well as other
controversial issues such as abortion and suicide there is no easy way to handle nor the easy way to
judge such things. These things do challenge the natural law and the moral standards of a person
but to simply put things, the double effect does indeed explain how such things are acceptable in the
natural law and if such elements of the double effect are not satisfied then it is completely immoral
or inappropriate and wrong.