Ethics or Necessity??

“The supreme court in Italy has established a sacrosanct principle: a small theft because of hunger is in no way comparable to an act of delinquency because the need to feed justifies the fact,”

“The ruling was in the case of a homeless man named Roman Ostriakov, who in 2011 was caught stealing a sausage and some cheese from a Genoa supermarket. He was arrested after a customer informed the store’s security of the theft; and in 2013, he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. The case concerning the taking of goods worth under $5 went through three rounds in the courts before making a final decision that it was not a crime.”

Do you think the man should have been punished for this theft? If so, why?. Don’t you think the man was in extreme necessity? Different people may have different opinions regarding this matter. Some may argue that it was morally ok to steal food while some may argue that it was lawfully incorrect to do so.

Though food is a basic human need, one in nine people does not get enough food to be healthy and lead a successful life. This has forced many people to commit crimes for their existence. The necessity to survive always wins over any kind of ethics and moral values.

So people may be easily convinced that it was morally right to steal food. Talking about imposing a fine on the person who stole food with the intention not to starve is very cruel and unethical. How can a person pay a fine if he is struggling day and night just to get food?

On the other hand, some people may argue that it was unacceptable to steal food with an excuse of extreme necessity. Laws have been made to make the society free of crimes and to set a boundary between good and bad, right and wrong. Today we are arguing that it is totally fine to steal food to feed the family but the next day we might argue that it’s fine to kill people just to fulfill our necessities.

Now, where is the boundary? If necessity always becomes an excuse for the crimes we commit then it brings the storm of lawlessness in society. There are many private and governmental organizations to help people who are in extreme situations of hunger. Stealing is not a long term solution. We all are capable of working hard to earn money and eradicate starvation. Think of a situation where you steal food from some other person who is working hard day and night to feed his family. It may solve your problem but at the same time, it puts another person in the same pitiful situation.

There is always the conflict between lawfully correct and ethically correct. We cannot easily jump to a conclusion in such a moral dilemma. It requires an understanding of ethics and moral values. These scenarios are more complicated than the simple choice of whether they are correct or not. Instead, these two “correct” choices are opposite to each other, so this is a moral dilemma.