Distant Rescues

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 considers a number of differences between cases in which one can rescue nearby strangers (who are drowning or imperiled by hurtling boulders) and cases in which one can use time or money to help distant strangers in need of food, shelter, or medical care. These include differences with respect to distance, salience, uniqueness, injustice, and diffusion. On the basis of several “clean” cases, it is argued that—whether taken individually or in combination—these differences would not make it the case that, while it is wrong not to save a nearby stranger (at a given cost), it is permissible not to save a distant stranger (at a similar cost). Nor would these differences make it the case that it is permissible to save one near stranger rather than two distant strangers. Differences with respect to “risky diffusion” are an exception to these claims.