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Quotation from The Science of Right by Immanuel Kant
“There can, in fact, be no Criminal Law assigning the penalty of death to a man who, when shipwrecked and struggling in extreme danger for his life, and in order to save it, may thrust another from a plank on which he had saved himself”
The Science of Right, Introduction to the Science of Right, Supplementary Remarks on Equivocal Right, II. The Right of Necessity, trans. W. Hastie (1887)
Kant's version of the ancient plank case: the act is not lawful, only unpunishable, because no threatened penalty can outweigh the certainty of drowning.
Citation: "There can, in fact, be no Criminal Law assigning the penalty of death to a man who, when shipwrecked and struggling in extreme danger for his life, and in order to save it, may thrust another from a plank on which he had saved himself" — Immanuel Kant, The Science of Right, Introduction to the Science of Right, Supplementary Remarks on Equivocal Right, II. The Right of Necessity, trans. W. Hastie (1887). (id kant-science-of-right-q4)
