Ends justifying the means

[Bullgrit]

My pre-WWII restriction was to avoid current political issues into the discussion.

Bullgrit

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So... note pre-WWII, but how about the medical knowledge we got sure to the nazi torture experiments on Jews?

Janx ninja'd you.

I'll just add that the Nazis weren't alone in their dodgy medical ethics. There were a lot of experiments conducted on the unwitting by Russian, American and other 1st world nations of the era.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

Janx ninja'd you.

I'll just add that the Nazis weren't alone in their dodgy medical ethics. There were a lot of experiments conducted on the unwitting by Russian, American and other 1st world nations of the era.

Ago did the end justify the means?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You get some über-pragmatic decision making trees in the military. Most navies- especially submariners in said navies- train a lot about slamming bulkhead doors closed in the event of a major leak, even of it means sealing up someone to die. Because if you don't, the entire ship may go down.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Ago did the end justify the means?

Hard to say. I know that the data from those experiments gets debated rather hotly on both sides, but I don't know how much of it has ever been used in actuality.

One common attack is that the data had no actual scientific controls, so its useless. But that may vary on a case by case basis. Certainly, a lot of the Nazi stuff was pure torture, but was all of it? I have not the first clue.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

You get some über-pragmatic decision making trees in the military. Most navies- especially submariners in said navies- train a lot about slamming bulkhead doors closed in the event of a major leak, even of it means sealing up someone to die. Because if you don't, the entire ship may go down.

So would you say it is a yes or a no?

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

Hard to say. I know that the data from those experiments gets debated rather hotly on both sides, but I don't know how much of it has ever been used in actuality.

One common attack is that the data had no actual scientific controls, so its useless. But that may vary on a case by case basis. Certainly, a lot of the Nazi stuff was pure torture, but was all of it? I have not the first clue.

From what I've heard, some of the plastic surgery procedure were found by the Nazis.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

Also, I'm on my phone, so if it seems like I'm quoting and relying to something you've already answered, its because I probably am, and I just haven't noticed you answered.

 

[Bedrockgames]

So... note pre-WWII, but how about the medical knowledge we got due to the nazi torture experiments on Jews?

Personally i still think the ends don't justify the means in this case, but because of the pre-WWII requirement of the discussion, we can go earlier. I am pretty sure in ptolemaic egypt, they gained a lot of medical knowledge by dissection criminals, often while alive.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Lifeboat Ethics is full of pragmatism.

Based on cases like the sinking of the William Brown*, the field is all about how to make ethical, life & death choices, especially when some of those choices might mean actively or effectively killing others.












* in brief, it was sunk by a mine, and one of the lifeboats that escaped was critically overburdened with survivors, short of supplies, and there was a storm approaching. Some people had to be abandoned in order that all would not be lost.