Captain John Prior's The Moral Logic Of Survivor Guilt

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I think people shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions in life or death situations. Everyone has accidents and everyone is somewhat clumsy. And when the casualty rates grow just because people fear rescue cost, or have guilt just for something they had nearly no control over, you know there’s something that can and will be done with an easy solution that honestly, should be no debate. For example, in “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt”, It discusses how an Army officer, Captain John Prior, felt responsible for the death of a soldier when a gun misfired and hit him in the head. When in reality, he had nothing to do with the firing of the gun but only the placement of the gun, and the placement of the victim, Joseph Mayek. Another example …show more content…

These people rescue and help people for a living, and wouldn’t be doing it if they feared the consequences of an accident on the job. One piece of evidence from “The Cost of Survival” sums it up. As quoted by a California Air National Guard who helped save the sick child at sea, “We’re out there to save lives. You can’t put a price on that.” Clearly, the officer enjoys what he does and is proud of it. He doesn’t mind saving them. This man trained for around 2 months and spent likely years given his rank of second lieutenant doing this, so it’s not something he’s getting sick of. Another argument you might bring up is that people purposely put themselves in dangerous situations while in national parks and similar places. Again, we have people who spend their lives rescuing people. They victim might have done what they did to be in the situation but obviously weren’t expecting their predicament. Everyone has accidents and everyone has been in a difficult situation before. When it’s like this, why should they pay? If everyone has accidents wouldn’t it make sense for everyone (as in taxpayers) to help them? They might not appreciate paying extra money to the government, but when they get in trouble themselves and don’t have a 500,000 dollar bill, they’ll be glad that they do pay the extra