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About this quote

What does it mean?
Sometimes not killing someone means accepting their death.
In plain terms
Choosing not to kill can still result in death.
What can you take from it?
Inaction can be as fatal as action.

Where it applies

  • medical ethics
  • war
  • conflict

Putting it to work

  • evaluate consequences
  • act intentionally

Questions to consider

  • What is the weight of inaction?
  • How do we judge moral choices?

Another view

Not all situations present such binary choices.

More from Orson Scott Card

  1. You imagine that I love you, but I do not. I don't love anyone.

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  2. Love was the genes of all creatures demanding that they be replicated, replicated, replicated.

    Permalink to quote #233
  3. No matter what they say they all intend to live Except the suicides? They intended to live, too. Suicide is a desperate attempt to get rid of unbearable agony.

    Permalink to quote #230

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