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Ethics

Is a person actually ethically obligated from stopping a friend from drinking and driving?
Accepted:
June 9, 2011

Comments

Oliver Leaman
June 10, 2011 (changed June 10, 2011) Permalink

Yes, and not only a friend. We could rephrase it to ask whether one ought to stop a drunken person handling a firearm, or machinery in general, and so on. Clearly where there is all likelihood of harm either to oneself and/or to others, one must intervene, however socially inept that makes one feel. This is not a slippery slope, where then one might think one has to stop someone doing anything that is potentially dangerous. Drinking and driving is so obviously dangerous that it calls out for direct action.

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