Were the actions of this woman morally justified?
The following may or may not be based on a true story that I am privy to. Whether it actually happened is irrelevant.
A woman is having an issue with a man who anonymously makes threatening phone calls to her. This man goes into detail about her daily routine, indicating he has the ability to enact his threats. The woman reports this to the police, who vaguely tell her they will look into it. She suspects they don't care or don't believe her. The same thing happens again, this time with the added mention that going to the police will only make things worse; when she reports it, she is essentially told by the police to fuck off, but with more words in an air of artificial politeness. Fearing for her life as the caller's threats become more detailed, she hires a contractor to solve the problem. (Some would say the contractor is a "mercenary", "hitman" or "hired gun" in a tone as if they were bad things, but let's be realistic here and say they ultimately are capable of at least as much good as bad; we must focus on the motives of not the sword but the hand that wields it. Ethically questionable as their methods may be, there's not always a place for moral unambiguity in the real world, as in this situation. Regardless, this is about the woman's actions, not the contractor's.)
The contractor uses his technical ability and impeccable investigative abilities to trace the source of the call (the harasser had used techniques to keep himself hidden), then hunts down and kills the harasser. During his mission, the contractor finds evidence suggesting the harasser stalked multiple women and may at some point have actually raped and murdered one or more. He speculates to himself that had she not made use of his services, she would have been a victim. The calls stop and it's likely that lives have been saved, however, a contracted killing has occurred.
The question is: were the actions of the woman in this scenario moral?
| Yes, it was just of her to do that. It served the greater good. | 39 | |
| Her actions were amoral, neither good nor bad. | 20 | |
| Her actions were immoral. She has comitted an evil act. | 9 | |
| Morality does not exist, so the question has no answer. | 10 |