Trolley Problems

The purpose of this paper is to examine Robert Hallborg’s paper, Comparing Harms, The Lesser Evil Defense and the Trolley Problem. Hallborg analyzes a series of scenarios, all of which involve a choice of evils, in an attempt to understand our limited acceptance of the lesser evil defense in criminal law. He holds that our intuitive judgments in the cases show that the lesser-evils defense can be used as a justification for killing innocent people but only in cases where the acting agent had a choice between commensurate evils. Hallborg begins with Phillipa Foot’s original problems and utilizes many of Judith Jarvis Thomson’s scenarios. He examines and rejects theories put forth by both Foot and Thomson in favor of his theory of commensurate value. Here I will examine again their theories as well as Hallborg’s, finally offering my own theory as to why we come to seemingly paradoxical conclusions about the permissibility of acting in the various lesser-evil situations. ...