Ethical Approaches to Famine Relief

Paper Summary:

This paper compares and contrasts the Utilitarian and Kantian ethical views of famine relief and then defends Singer?s claims. The writer, first, lays out a spectrum of the amount of aid that is thought to be appropriate, and then places Kantians and Utilitarians on this scale. It examines Singer?s approach and defends Singer from critics; relates Utilitarian and Kantian ethics on famine relief to the issues of whether there?s a distinction between killing and letting die and to the Doctrine of Double Effect, taking the side that one should in fact recognize the associated effects of one?s actions; provides a related reason why Singer?s more moderate claim can be held as opposed to his stronger claim; and, finally, defends large-scale famine relief from ?more practical than philosophical? problems.

From the Paper:

"To the question of how much one ought give to help famine relief efforts, let us say there are four possible general answers. 1) One could give everything one has; 2) one could give what I'll call ?all one can*?, different from giving everything one has in that it is only giving to the level of marginal utility, leaving some amount for other pressing concerns; 3) one could give some amount less than all one can* but above nothing; or, 4) one could give nothing. Practically speaking, few would want to hold to the belief that one should give everything one has. It is also the case that few hold the belief that one should give nothing, keeping in mind that "that one should give nothing" is not the same as "that one is not obliged to give anything"; the first says that one morally must not give anything, whereas by the second one may morally give something but it is not required. Many Kantians would hold that one is not obliged to give anything, but that it is good, nonetheless, to be to some degree beneficent in some area. So, generally speaking, most people fall between (2) and (3) in their belief as to the level of aid one ought give to famine relief efforts, with Utilitarians like Singer on the (2) side and Kantians more on the (3) side."

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