So how evolved are you?

[Aliantha]

I got the idea for this thread from a post of our glorious leader in response to something Radar said.

Kohlberg suggested sex stages of moral development and your statement is locked at stage two.

So where do you think you fit?

[Sheldonrs]

I think everyone should follow the same ethical practices (or their equiv.) all the time.

[Cloud]

is this poll for the male of the species?

[HungLikeJesus]

"sex stages"?

[freshnesschronic]

I voted for interpersonal accord and conformity, for whatever its worth. Everyone is talking. But not everyone is voting...
Are these responses write-ins?

[SteveDallas]

I want to know more about the sex stages.

I personally am at the "too much of a gray area to choose one" stage.

[footfootfoot]

I have opposable thumbs

[HungLikeJesus]

This thread reminds me of a book I once read, written in a language that I did not know.

[monster]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

This thread reminds me of a book I once read, written in a language that I did not know.

this post reminds me of a song I heard earlier this morning, the title of which I do not know. yet.

[Undertoad]

If nobody looks at the Wikipedia entry I pointed to in the other thread, we can do this.

Please answer the following question, and give the reasoning behind your answer.

A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug.

The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

[glatt]

Good question.

No. Heinz had no right to break into the lab to steal the drug.

If I was in the same situation, I would steal the drug, but expect to face any consequences for doing so.

[glatt]

I forgot you asked for reasoning.

The druggist owns the drug. Heinz does not own the drug. To take the drug is stealing. Plain and simple. You have to have clear cut laws.

The druggist is a jerk for not providing it for a more reasonable price, and could quite possible be run out of town for being so selfish. There is some expectation from a human point of view that the druggist would provide the drug for a more reasonable price, but he shouldn't be required by law to do that.

[lumberjim]

~exactly~ what glatt said

[Clodfobble]

Everything glatt said, plus more on this:

The druggist is a jerk for not providing it for a more reasonable price, and could quite possible be run out of town for being so selfish.

Heinz has every right to make the run-out-of-town threat real by explaining to everyone he knows how the druggist is refusing his (their loaned) money, and generally being a jerk.

Also, Heinz's punishment for the theft should fit the crime--since he's presumably already administered the drug and can't give it back, the punishment should be something along the lines of 'pay for it' (which Heinz already attempted to do, being willing to pay the other $1000 as soon as he could get it) and some additional deterrent, as determined to be appropriate by a jury of his peers (and not the druggist.) It goes without saying for me that the punishment should not be as bad as a dead wife.

[glatt]

I agree completely with Clodfobble. If Heinz tells the truth about the druggist, he's welcome to do all he wants to get a furor going.

So here's a question.

If the wife's problem happens to be contagious and becomes a widespread public health problem, would the government (or society) have a right to come in and take the drug and drug know-how from the druggist, pay him what it deems to be fair value, and distribute it to everyone that is sick?