Are good intentions a good defense for breaking the law?

 

The law as represented by judge's tools

Carol Forsloff -In 2010 a Louisiana group of Baptists were held in Haiti for trying to take children out of the country.   Edward Snowden stole government documents in order to reveal the fact that the government had been spying on its citizens as well as on world leaders and others.  But are good intentions a good defense for doing bad things, including breaking the law?

The Boston media examined this story, presenting the Baptists' defense of their actions. They declared they were just trying to help the children, to take them to a place that was safe and were given permission by the children's parents to do so. There are issues raised about human trafficking with regard to the action of this group of Baptists, who were reported headed for the Dominican Republican with 33 children when they were caught. 

The Prime Minister initially referred to what they did as kidnapping while the group maintained they were only trying to save the children's lives with their parents' permission. But was that the only agenda of the group and did these good intentions negate the fact they may have broke Haitian law?

 Good intentions are found not to be a reasonable defense in Haiti's case according to Butler, who writes somewhat extensively on the matter, but this excerpt presents a brief summation of her argument:"The misplaced missionary impulse to save the heathen children and impart “civilization” by loading a bunch of Haitian kids in a bus and heading for a resort with a swimming pool, to share the “good news” and be adopted, is simply ludicrous. No reputable missions organization works that way. "

 
The article in the Episcopalian publication by Butler, however, underscored the key issue the courts and the court of public opinion will weigh, "Paving the road to hell with good intentions," presents the case within certain of the spiritual community raising the questions about the Baptist group's attempt to take children from Haiti and whether good intentions makes a good excuse.

And Edward Snowden who obtained a job with a defense contractor, then stole records from that contractor in order to reveal the fact that the government had been spying on its citizens has his defenders those who maintain that good intentions are a good defense.  In other words, the information about government spying was a good reason for taking a job in order to find out that information, then reveal it publicly and across the world.

Butler would like say, as in the case of the Haitian children, that doing what some folks consider to be the right thing is not a viable reason for doing something bad in order to make a point.

It has been a pattern in many cases where people take actions that violate the law in order to correct a wrong or do a good deed.  But those good intentions, according to those who have examined both the law and the ethics, as Butler did in her article, are insufficient cause for dismissing the fact that the law was broken and with breaking it there are likely to be consequences.