Adultery to save lives justifiable?

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Yes, this is another one of those ends don’t justify the means posts.

Scenario: you are at a concentration camp and the camp commander says that if you sleep with him he will spare your family from execution. Yes, adultery is considered an instinsically evil act, and it is easy to say “don’t do it.” But would you really fault someone who did this spare his family? Would it really be the greater evil to let your family die?

I’m sure a scenario like this has played out before in history, especially during WWII.
 
TheAdvocate197 said:
Yes, adultery is considered an instinsically evil act, and it is easy to say “don’t do it.” But would you really fault someone who did this spare his family?
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It’s grave matter. I think in that scenario culpability may be diminished, but I wouldn’t want anyone betting their soul on it.
 
It’s a great question. Let’s say a Nazi guard spared the lives of 30 people if one slept with him. Not claiming to know the answer-but it’s interesting.
 
And nothing say that the outcome is sure. The torturer can lie and want to kill the family…

here, the great sinner is the torturer who blackmail and playing with people life.

The guilt of the victims in their decision are dismished, because it seems there is no good solution.
 
Forced sexual activity is rape. Whether the victim herself was threatened or her family is threatened that is not consensual.

Now if the scenario was the woman offering herself for special treatment like extra food, or privileges that others weren’t getting that might be something to discuss.
 
The camp commander cannot be trusted to spare your family.
 
You must not commit an evil act in hopes of a good result.
Even if the camp commander could be trusted to keep his word it’s still adultery. So no.
Besides that: suppose you give in and he keeps his word. And a few days later he says to you: now I want you to sleep with my friend. Otherwise we’ll kill some prisoners and make you watch. What will you do, having given in once?
And when he then demands homosexual adultery with a fellow prisoner so he and his friends can watch?
And after that, molest a child for him or else the child dies?
This is the thing about extortion. It gets worse once the extortionist knows he can control you.

And all this provided the commander does keep his word. He could just use you, laugh at you and kill your family.
 
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Unless they actually consent. A horrible situation, yes, and culpability would be reduced for sure, but the objective morality is still absolute.
 
It is probably rape in the legal sense. Morally though, someone either consents or they don’t. The fact that they were under extreme duress mitigates culpibilty for consent but does not this fact. The OP question was whether such an action would be permissable from the standpoint of the extorted individual, implying that something is being done, and a choice is being made. If the person is under such a degree of duress that they cannot be said to make a conscious choice, then the question of whether it is permissable becomes irrelevent to that person in that situation as they are no longer a moral freely choosing individual.

This situation is no different from another such as an early Vhristian being coerced into stepping on a Crucifix in order to have his life (or his family’s…) spared. Is it permissable? No. Will God be merciful? Hopefully, but you don’t presume. The objective nature is absolute. The same applies in the OP’s hypothetical.
 
Dacinom said:
Swapping rape, for murder, under duress, while imprisoned? Wow, hard for me to see the culpability.
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Agreed. Consenting is wrong but the circumstances may reduce culpability to almost nothing.
 
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It is the sin of rape, sure, among other things, from the perspective of the prison guard of course.
 
This is straight out of “Situation Ethics” by Fletcher, 1960 something. Literally. It’s one of the examples Fletcher gives. An evil act is never permitted, even if you think it’s necessary to achieve a good end. The ends do not justify the means.
 
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One doesn’t get off the hook morally simply because he can point to another person who is 1000x worse. Hitler is probably damned and I will almost definetely never commit a fraction of a % of the grave sins he was responsible for, but I can still lose my soul because of one. We’re all ultimately judged as individuals, so such comparisons are irrelevant.
 
TheAdvocate197 said:
Scenario: you are at a concentration camp and the camp commander says that if you sleep with him he will spare your family from execution.
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This is an act of coercion. The extreme fear caused by the commandant’s threat gravely diminishes moral culpability, as the full use of free will and reason is impossible. It is tantamount rape. Actually, it is rape.

In a situation like this, we would praise the heroic virtue of someone who resisted the assault but lost everyone he or she loved, but would also treat the victim who was unable to resist with compassion. The prisoner is injured spiritually from the grave evil inflicted on him, whether the sexual assault or the murder of his family. However, it is not his moral fault that either occurred; that would lie squarely with the commandant, not the prisoner
 
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TheAdvocate197 said:
Yes, this is another one of those ends don’t justify the means posts.

Scenario: you are at a concentration camp and the camp commander says that if you sleep with him he will spare your family from execution. Yes, adultery is considered an instinsically evil act, and it is easy to say “don’t do it.” But would you really fault someone who did this spare his family? Would it really be the greater evil to let your family die?

I’m sure a scenario like this has played out before in history, especially during WWII.
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It is not justified. You cannot commit an evil even if the end is good.

What if the scenario in that camp for a family was kill your mother and father and your children would be spared and set free?
 
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