[AAACE-NLA] Moral choices: another example

[DJRosen@TheWorld.com]

Hello Kearney,

Another example:

A young farmer who lives in an area with poor farmland in very poor
country in Central America decides that it is immoral to watch his family
members die of malnutrition, hunger, and pesticide poisoning.  He borrows
money, leaves home, and crosses the border looking for a way to earn money
over a short period of time to send back home.  He is not planning to go
to the United States, but he soon finds that he cannot stay in Mexico,
that he will be arrested there or in any country except the one he was
born in because he has no papers. He decides to push on northwards, taking
his chances.  He does this at great personal risk, for moral reasons, to
meet basic human needs of his family.  He knows that what he is doing is
not legal, but decides that the moral principle outweighs the legal and
other risks.  I believe that this example is fairly common among
immigrants to the United States.  I also think that  if the Bush
administratrion prevailed on Congress, and there were a guest worker
program, that he might be able to get the papers to work legally.  (I am
not advocating that policy, just pointing out that what is illegal today
could be legal in the next few months or years.)

Doesn't this example also describe a choice to break the law which is
morally defensible?

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcastt.net

Kearney Lykins wrote:

> David,
>
> The two examples you give illustrate the tough choices some people
decide to make. Both are examples in which would-be-immigrants seek
entry on grounds of political asylum. They are not however
representative of the moral choices being made by the millions of
illiterate and un-immunized people who have willfully entered the US
illegally. I am not saying that were I in the shoes of your protagonists
I wouldn't attempt to do the same thing as they. But I am saying that
the circumstances of the vast majority of the current 12 million or so
illegal aliens are far different than your two examples.
>
> Kearney