Moral Cowardice
Chris Dagle
Phil 330
Dr. Pynes
Moral Cowardice The moral dilemma is whether or not the bystanders had a moral responsibility to intervene during the murder of Catherine Genovese. According to police, “the assailant had three chances to kill this woman during a 35-minute period.” (488) The killer left the scene and returned twice to finish the murder. If someone had called the police after the first attack, the woman might not have been murdered. According to police, several people saw the assault but did nothing until it was too late and Catherine was dead. I think this story illustrates how people often choose to let someone else take care of a situation instead of taking action themselves. It also questions what our moral responsibility is to others. In this particular story, bystanders had many different reasons for not taking action. Some said that they did not want to get involved while others said that they were tired and just went back to sleep. I would say that the bystanders did not know the severity of the assault that was taking place. However, the question is whether or not it was their moral responsibility to take action knowing what they did know.
Moral responsibility usually refers to the idea that people have a moral obligation to take action in certain situations or face punishment. I would say that these people did not have a moral responsibility in the sense of legality. However, I do believe that the bystanders had an ethical duty to at least make a phone call to the police in this situation. I do not think that it was their responsibility to physically intervene during the assault, but they should have identified the situation and called the
Phil 330
Dr. Pynes
Moral Cowardice The moral dilemma is whether or not the bystanders had a moral responsibility to intervene during the murder of Catherine Genovese. According to police, “the assailant had three chances to kill this woman during a 35-minute period.” (488) The killer left the scene and returned twice to finish the murder. If someone had called the police after the first attack, the woman might not have been murdered. According to police, several people saw the assault but did nothing until it was too late and Catherine was dead. I think this story illustrates how people often choose to let someone else take care of a situation instead of taking action themselves. It also questions what our moral responsibility is to others. In this particular story, bystanders had many different reasons for not taking action. Some said that they did not want to get involved while others said that they were tired and just went back to sleep. I would say that the bystanders did not know the severity of the assault that was taking place. However, the question is whether or not it was their moral responsibility to take action knowing what they did know.
Moral responsibility usually refers to the idea that people have a moral obligation to take action in certain situations or face punishment. I would say that these people did not have a moral responsibility in the sense of legality. However, I do believe that the bystanders had an ethical duty to at least make a phone call to the police in this situation. I do not think that it was their responsibility to physically intervene during the assault, but they should have identified the situation and called the