Keeping Hands Clean in War: The Double-Effect Approach to Killing

Abstract

By defending an alternate framework to the forfeiture approach to killing which is most popular in today’s military ethical literature, I provide an opportunity for new and increased philosophical reflection and discourse on the ethics of killing, as well as new opportunity for defenders of double-effect to make a substantive contribution to the field. This paper demonstrates the internal consistency of arguments that seek to utilise DDE, including its relevance to individual self-defence and individual killing in war.

Citation

Beard, M. (2015), "Keeping Hands Clean in War: The Double-Effect Approach to Killing", Conscience, Leadership and the Problem of ‘Dirty Hands’ (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 75-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620150000013005

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