Having said that though, morality does say that if you have the means to give someone an opportunity to increase their happiness at no cost to you or anyone else, you should give it to them, though this can also be viewed as something that would generate harm if they found out that you didn’t offer it to them.
These aren’t equivalent. If I discover that you threw away a cancer cure, my unhappiness at this discovery won’t be equivalent to dying of cancer.
Won’t it? If you’re dying of cancer and find out that I threw away the cure, that’s the difference between survival and death, and it will likely feel even worse for knowing that a cure was possible.
The dying-of-cancer-level harm is independent of whether I find out that you didn’t offer me the opportunity. The sadness at knowing that I could have not been dying-of-cancer is not equivalent to the harm of dying-of-cancer.
It is equivalent to it. (1) dying of cancer --> big negative. (2) cure available --> negative cancelled. (3) denied access to cure --> big negative restored, and increased. That denial of access to a cure actively becomes the cause of death. It is no longer simply death by cancer, but death by denial of access to available cure for cancer.
These aren’t equivalent. If I discover that you threw away a cancer cure, my unhappiness at this discovery won’t be equivalent to dying of cancer.
Won’t it? If you’re dying of cancer and find out that I threw away the cure, that’s the difference between survival and death, and it will likely feel even worse for knowing that a cure was possible.
The dying-of-cancer-level harm is independent of whether I find out that you didn’t offer me the opportunity. The sadness at knowing that I could have not been dying-of-cancer is not equivalent to the harm of dying-of-cancer.
It is equivalent to it. (1) dying of cancer --> big negative. (2) cure available --> negative cancelled. (3) denied access to cure --> big negative restored, and increased. That denial of access to a cure actively becomes the cause of death. It is no longer simply death by cancer, but death by denial of access to available cure for cancer.