The harm done by injustice consists not merely in the pain
inflicted upon the victim. There is the sympathetic pain caused in
all those who are at all tender hearted. There is the sense of insecurity
caused in each by the realization that he too might some day be a
victim; when justice is not enforced no man is safe. There is the
stimulation given to human passions by one indulgence which will breed
a whole crop of pain. There is the danger that if injustice is allowed
in one case where a great good seems to warrant it, it will be
practiced in other cases where no such necessity exists. Men are not
to be trusted to judge clearly of relative advantages where their
passions are concerned; they must bind themselves by an inflexible
code. The cases cited are comparatively clear. No one would seriously
contend that cannibalism or lynching, the execution of Christ, or the
banishment of Dreyfus, made in the direction of the greatest happiness
of mankind. But it has been seriously urged that the insane and the
feeble and the morally worthless should be killed off, as they were
in some sterner ancient states. Why should we guarantee life and liberty
to such as are a useless drag upon the community, spend upon them
millions which might be spent for bringing joy and recreation to the
rest of us? Or again, if medical men need a living human victim to
experiment upon, in order to conquer some devastating disease, why
not pounce upon some good-for-nothing member of the community and force
him to undergo the pain? The considerations enumerated in the preceding
paragraph, however, bid us halt.
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