Abstract
This chapter explores some of the debates in recent decades regarding the ethical obligation to tackle the hunger suffered in the Global South. The chapter begins by exploring some of the main theoretical perspectives that deny the existence of any ethical obligation to help alleviate hunger, especially in other countries. Secondly, it explains the main approaches since the 1970s that have argued for the ethical responsibilities of affluent countries and their citizens to reduce hunger beyond their own borders. Thirdly, it reflects on the evolution of these debates, from their initial formulations focused on material aid to prioritise a cosmopolitan perspective of global justice centred on structural transformations to guarantee food security and human development.
This chapter was produced as part of the work of the Research Group on Human Security, Local Human Development and International Cooperation (IT1037-16) of the Basque university system (2016–2021), of which the author is lead researcher.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Triage’ is a medical technique used in war that consists of assigning scarce health resources to the wounded with a chance of survival. Paddock and Paddock (1967) proposed its application to North American food aid. Under the approach, aid would only be sent to countries with potential for improvement but not to countries without a future, whose population would need to be sacrificed for the well-being of humanity.
- 2.
‘Lifeboat ethics’ was formulated by Garret Hardin (1977). Assuming that famine in the so-called Third World was inevitable, Hardin used this well-known metaphor to argue against aid: there are two lifeboats, one that is full of privileged, well-fed people and another full of hungry people, some of whom try to swim over to the first. If we try to save them, our boat will be overloaded and we will all drown, and thus it is best to leave them to their fate. The analogous political argument is that it is best to eliminate aid for overpopulated countries until their population falls and becomes sustainable with respect to their resources. Otherwise, food aid will contribute to demographic growth in these countries and thus to the exhaustion of natural resources, endangering humanity as a whole.
- 3.
The reference for this argument is Williams (1981) and the following example: if two people are in danger, your wife and a stranger, and you can only save one, which would you save? Clearly you would choose to save your wife because she is your wife and because you have a special reciprocal obligation toward her. However, you do not save her for her own good but for yours, since her loss would destroy your life and identity. This idea is ironically summed up by Belsey (1992): “if you save the stranger, who is going to wash your socks?”
- 4.
He explains his argument as follows: “If I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing” (Singer, 1997).
- 5.
In a postscript to the re-publication of his article in 1997, Singer adds that aid should be any type that is most effective, that is to say not just famine relief but also development assistance.
- 6.
The obligation to save a person who is drowning is greater if I only need to stretch out my hand than if I had to swim and do not know how. Once the rescuer finds his or herself in the situation of the person they’re are trying to save, the obligation disappears.
- 7.
Aiken (1977) poses the question: does my right to have a bathroom decorated in gold override another’s right to sufficient food to survive?
- 8.
Modern liberal thought prioritises happiness and in doing so has blurred the traditional notion of what is good and necessary for human beings, marginalising the idea of needs. The goal of utilitarianism is happiness, which is a subjective experience that may or may not coincide with the satisfaction of needs and may even harm them, such as the decision to smoke at the cost of preserving one’s health (O’Neill, 1994). Authors of the New Right, such as Nozick, argue that there are no objective and universal basic needs, merely subjective desires, such that when the State defines them, it is violating individual and market freedoms. For its part, Marxism has tended to regard human needs as relative, since, individual societies generate an awareness of needs and rights among their citizens depending on their economic base, which acts as a stimulus for social change (Doyal & Gough, 1991).
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Pérez de Armiño, K. (2022). Ethical Debates on Global Hunger: Moral Obligations to the Distant Other and Global Justice. In: Escajedo San-Epifanio, L., Rebato Ochoa, E.M. (eds) Ethics of Charitable Food. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93600-6_3
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