Drawing the Line
When does an action enter the moral realm? Consider a simple example. Suppose you are standing on top of a cliff and decide to throw a tiny rock. You watch as the tiny rock crashes into the rocks below. You justify your rock throwing by saying that it is just a tiny hastening of natural erosion. Does this small action fall into the moral realm? Most people respond "No" to this action. Now suppose you push a large boulder off the side of the cliff. Does this fall in the moral realm? What about an insect? A small animal? A human infant? A human adult? Obviously throwing a human infant and a human adult is in the moral realm, but where do you draw the line? At what point do you say, "There is something wrong with this!"?
The line obviously changes from person to person based on their morals. This line drawing often invokes debate on moral decisions. Such is true in both the Tuskegee case study and the Experimenting on Animals case study. Both case studies are very debatable on whether they were/are correct or not. This debate eventually boils down to where you draw the line.
