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> It would be sensible to sacrifice the well-being of a small group in order to save the whole, if it's necessary to do so.

To paraphrase: "The ends justify the means".

I disagree. That road leads to all kinds of evil.



The key part of that, that makes it obviously morally correct is:

> if it's necessary to do so

There is no road in the context. It's either sacrifice the small group, or save the whole - that's the entire proposition. If you remove the necessity part, that changes the equation entirely.


> The key part of that, that makes it obviously morally correct is...

There's nothing obvious about it, look at the debates around assassinating Hitler for a historical example: http://theconversation.com/killing-hitler-when-is-assassinat...


>That road leads to all kinds of evil.

As long as we drive on that road on autopilot, no one will notice.




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