IS THE LIFE BOAT ETHIC APPROPRIATE?
Recent statements argue that we in the developed countries are in effect in a lifeboat, well supplied with resources, while many other countries are in other lifeboats without resources such as food. They argue that we should withhold these resources or risk future destruction from depletion of our own resources. As grim as this policy seems, it has many advocates today. What should the passengers on the rich lifeboat do?
In answer Callahan argues that we cannot turn away from the needs of the developing countries no matter how seductive that course may seem now. For one thing, we are dependent on raw materials from them. But, more important, he points out that to bequeath a civilization of morality to our children is an even greater need, and we cannot do that by selfish isolation. "If we are to worry about our duty to posterity, it would not hurt to ask what kind of moral legacy we should bequeath. One in which we won our own survival at the cost of outright cruelty and callousness would be tawdry and vile."
