Dudley and Morality

Caroline, when we talked about this in my Crim class, our professor focused on the court’s fixation on the lack of drawing lots. I agree with you, Keith, and Justin, that part of the purpose is to place a moral stigma on cannibalism—but that this doesn’t really change anything. It’s hard to imagine that many moral stigmas could run so deep in people that they would choose to die rather than commit the offence (though there are certainly some over which people would rather choose death).

While I realize that the court does not sanction cannibalism if lots are drawn, there is a reason that this instance of cannibalism at sea among others was chosen to be the defining landmark case, and I think that it has a lot to do with the choosing of the weak boy with no dependant relatives over the respected family men. This is the time of Charles Darwin, and, perhaps more importantly here, Herbert Spencer. Perhaps the court wishes not only to place the stamp of moral taboo on cannibalism for all society to see, but also on the idea that men may choose who is to be sacrificed by whose life is of greater social value. While the famous takeaway of the case is that cannibalism will not be tolerated, perhaps it should be instead that the social value of a man does not determine the value of his life.