Scenario:

Scenario:
>After having had a couple of beers one night, you get behind the wheel. On the road, you run over a person. You stop and see that they are completely splattered, there is no way they are still alive.
You also know that if you were to drive off you would almost certainly get away with it.

Question:
Should you turn yourself in? And, specifically, is it moral to turn yourself in?

I'd like to know what you think.

I was having this discussion with a friend of mine, and I argued that you should drive away. This, because the damage is now done. Nothing you can do can save that person, their life is already over, and the lives of those close to him have been affected. If you were to turn yourself in though it would negatively affect your life and that of those close to you.
Is there something essentially moral about letting yourself be punished by the law once you have already broken it?

P.S. After having written this I thought about how, since it is your fault that person is dead, it would be right for the family of the deceased to demand some sort of reparation (e.g. a civil suit). That aside, my problem is not that I believe that laws aren't useful, nor that punishments shouldn't be in place for those who break these laws, I just believe that the use of the laws is to deter people from breaking them. Once the damage is done though, is there any moral value to the punishment itself (specifically jail time)?

>admit you killed someone drinking behind the wheel
>get butt raped in prison
lets debate the morality of the situation

Interesting question.

I obviously don't know how I'd react in the situation, but I think it would be wiser to drive off, seeing that your life would be essentially ruined (or at least it would be an extremely shit situation to face) if you didn't.

I agree with your view on laws and morale, what good does it do the dead person if you have to suffer afterwards? You didn't intend to kill them.

Ofc the family would deserve to know what happened and who is responsible, but I think that isn't worth a ruined life or the repercussions you'd have to face.

If you get drunk after few beers you should die and your offspring will not survive the winter.

>Once the damage is done though, is there any moral value to the punishment itself (specifically jail time)?
Not really, no. However punishment has value beyond moral- the threat of punishment acts as a preventative measure, and stops people from comitting crimes. Punishment therefore should always follow crime, even when it is morally unnecessary, so that others can see that the threat of punishment is not hollow.
Not that any of that applies in this specific circumstance.

You don't have to be drunk for alcohol to affect your perception and reflexes

No that is not how alcohol works.

If the person who did this was a danger to society, then I would want him to turn himself in. If it really was a once in a lifetime freak accident from an otherwise responsible individual, then I would be fine letting him go.

Good question, I'll give my thoughts.

I'd say it's dependant on ones own moral philosophies, as you stated, the facts are all there, you did something you should not have, drinking and driving, knowing the risks, and Murphy's law came through and you killed someone. You've not only committed a crime, but murder of an innocent is an affront so the unwritten moralities of our society, collectively speaking, it was morally wrong. Now with that in mind, what's left to ponder is whether or not the individual should feel like they have penance to pay for this. If you truly feel guilty, turning yourself in may grant your conscience freedom of years of shame, however the ramifications of this will be evident in your life, doors will close for you, opportunities will disappear, society will shun you, perhaps even your family, terrible things might happen to you in prison, you may never recover financially, doomed to live half a life because of o e mistake. Now on the flip side, one may say to themselves "fuck that, they won't be around to remember, I'm not subjecting myself to nightmarish proceedings because I decided to guzzle a brewskie or two and drive home".

Personally, I'd likely drive off initially, but I have a feeling my guilty conscience would get the better of me, but even then I could see a therapist, keep my confession confidential, but still, I wouldn't feel absolved.

>know that someone could die if you drink and drive
>drink and drive anyway
Pucker up, pretty boy

(OP here)

Yeah, I guess that ultimately it has to do with how much one values penance. When it comes to my friend, I felt his decision was influenced by the fact that he was raised Catholic and that therefore believes there is virtue in penance and self-sacrifice that makes it the more moral option.

Interestingly, my friend also argued that even if you hadn't actually been drinking but it was still somehow your fault you should still turn yourself in.
Say for example you just missed the sign that indicated a pedestrian crossing was up ahead and you didn't slow down enough to prevent a collision.

Also, using your reasoning
>know that someone could die if you drive
>drive anyway

Of course the chances of killing someone from behind the wheel while drunk are a lot greater than those of killing some from behind the wheel while sober.
How much of an absolute chance would you say is significant enough that an activity ought to be made prosecutable? Or does it have to do with the increase in likelihood from doing the activity in a natural state?
I guess you could also argue that driving is necessary to some extent, whereas drinking alcohol is not.

The premise is stupid. I would never drink and drive because I would never place myself in a situation where I would be drinking and potentially end up having to drive myself somewhere else later.

I agree to an extent.
I conceded to the premise for the sake of argument because my friend was having trouble coming up with a scenario where it would be my fault despite the fact I hadn't done anything illegal specifically. Which does sound a bit paradoxical to begin with. I argued that if it wasn't my fault it would be better for me to turn myself in, as I had not been breaking the law and that therefore there wouldn't be any repercussions, whereas if I were to get caught I would be guilty and face punishment. Obviously though, one can't be completely certain that one hasn't broken any laws unknowingly.

There's no point in turning yourself in. Actually, it's worse if you do. You'll end up in prison and be a tax burden for the people in your county/state/country. This also negatively affects your own life of course since you're in prison. If you have children it will severely impact their lives as well. Meanwhile, if you just drive away, life continues as normal except that person is dead. But either way they're dead. So it doesn't matter.

Imo this breaks down to whether you think following the law is inherently moral. In my view, that's not the case. In this case, it's morally correct to just drive away and leave the hit and run case a mystery. If you do believe that one must follow the law in order to be moral, then your moral code would dictate you turn yourself in I guess.

>After having had a couple of beers one night, you get behind the wheel.

Just for the sake of discussion; Several years back a guy I knew from high school (who had become a lawyer) was at a golf outing with three friends where all had been drinking heavily and while speeding along a country road at night, he missed the turn and crashed.

One guy died, another is crippled from the waist down and the driver and another guy were seriously injured.

He got a year in jail and lost his lawyer’s license (I think he’s got it back by now?) and had pay out the ass and declare bankruptcy.

Who did I splatter?

A black jewish MTF tranny

Then my course of action is to back up over them to make sure they're dead.

>(((They)))

...

Whom*

>same situation but not drunk
What would you do?

I would flee in case 1, but not being drunk would change things even if i knew id be done for it, just knowing i was innocent myself would make me want to stay no matter how little difference it would make, am i fucking retarded?