Journal of medical ethics, I979, 5, 143-144 Analysis: an introduction to ethical concepts Acts and omissions

At first sight it seems reasonable to say there is an important difference between, on the one hand, actively causing harm or injury to a person and, on the other, omitting to prevent harm from occurring. There is a difference between failing to resuscitate an aged terminally-ill patient who has arrested and actively killing a similar patient who shows no signs of imminent death. Or at least it has seemed to many that such a difference is obvious: the validity of the distinction has been challenged (most recently by Jonathan Glover') as being a distinction without a difference-since the consequences in both cases are identical. From Aristotle via Thomas Aquinas and Roman Catholic moral theology has come the distinctio