ABSTRACT
So far, our investigation has suggested that there are numerous factors that
affect the overall moral status of a given course of conduct. In this chapter
we will look at a variety of considerations, other than positive and negative
agency and intention, that affect the justifiability of a given situation of
harm. These include consequence, preventability, commitments, duties and
rights. I do not rank these considerations in order of importance and it
must be noted that, although preventability is usually a matter of degree,
zero preventability would entail that our moral judgement of a given situation of harm could not apply. It will be shown that these considerations
with respect to given examples of the failure to help can be rather impor-
tant.
