The Principle of the Twofold Effect

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.  Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance.  O Lord, make haste to help me.

   I am sure that anyone who reads this will be aware that there is an election on the near horizon, and one which will have consequences which may change this country forever.  Some people I know intend to vote for a third party candidate, believing, according to their conscience, that they can not vote for either of the major party candidates.  Others will refuse to vote at all, knowing that a third party candidate will simply take votes away from the major challenger.   In both cases, the  re-election of the current president is almost assured.  That is the most unacceptable outcome of all.

   One may never choose the "lesser of two evils" in making a decision.  In either instance, one is choosing an evil.  In the long-ago dim past I had a course at my then very Catholic college that dealt with "Moral Guidance."  The Principle of the Twofold Effect shows alternative and correct (moral) thinking in difficult decision-making. I still have the book and pulled it off the shelf to try to discern what I should do about voting this year.

   The concept is that an action may be willed or intended in either one of two ways.  It may be willed or intended directly or indirectly.
    To will or intend directly is to will or intend a certain action either as a means to a certain end which one has in view or as the end itself.
   To will or intend indirectly, one does not will or intend a certain action in itself, but wills or intends some other action.

   So, if a person intends something good (directly) and something bad comes from it (indirectly), then the direct action is morally o.k. - but here's a disclaimer - the good must be directly intended, to produce a good effect, and that effect  must be proportionate.  

   Inversely, one may not directly perform a bad action for the purpose of attaining a good result. An example is that one may not tell a lie, even in order to save one's life or to save one's or another's good name.

   There must be a proportionate reason for permitting a forseen evil effect to occur.  An example in the book struck me, because it brought to mind the people who leapt from the twin towers with fire behind them.
   Example: Mr. Sweeney, trapped by fire on the top floor of a forty-story building, hurls himself out the window in order to avoid the excruciating torture of death by fire. He is dashed to pieces on the pavement blow. Sweeney clearly realized that a fall from such a height would certainly be fatal.
   Condition 1: Sweeney does not wish to be dashed to pieces. He intends merely the avoiding of death by fire.
   Condition2: Flinging himself out the window is in itself an indifferent action It is merely the act of withdrawing from a place fraught with agonizing torture. He intends only the jumping away from the fire and not jumping to death. He does not wish to be killed. His act is merely an escaping from the present danger with which he is theatened.
   Condition 3: The good effect (escaping from the flames) is not produced by the evil effect (being dashed to pieces), for even though he were not killed (because, for instance, he landed in a deep pool of water or on the thirty-eighty floor landing, etc.), the good effect would still follow. Hence the evil effect is not the cause of the good effect.
   Condition 4:There is a proportionate reason, for he is not putting his life in greater or more immediate jeopardy and he is escaping horrible agony.

   I think that I can use this example to allow me to vote for Mitt Romney. There are things about him that might prohibit my voting for him in usual circumstances.  However, proportionately, the good I intend - the defeat of Barak Obama, who has shown himself to be truly evil, and whose aims we have no doubt about - outweighs problematic things about Mitt Romney.  I don't intend the possible bad consequences of a Romney presidency. I simply want to avoid the assured destruction of our freedom, our religion, etc. I am trying to escape from a clear and present danger. Whatever "evil" might come from the election of Romney may be dealt with (one would hope) later.

   If I am incorrect in my interpretation, then let that be on my conscience. I am convinced that I need to vote against the evil I know. There is only one way possibly to defeat him, and that might be slight; but it is a vote for Mitt Romney.

     The book is Moral Guidance by Edwin F. Healy , S.J., 1942