course of his professional life. But if we had no Doctors, such a loss
would be a much greater evil to mankind than their occasional mistakes.
Here then we seem to be in a dilemma, with evil on both sides of us. And
then we are reminded of that other principle of which we spoke before,
that we may never do evil at all that good may come of it. What shall we
do? The solution is this: we should never _do_ evil, but we are often
justified in _permitting_ evil to happen; in other words, we can never
will evil _directly_, but we can often will it _indirectly_: we can do
what is right in itself, even though we know or fear that evil will
also result from our good act.

This conduct requires four conditions: 1. That we do not wish the evil
itself, but make all reasonable effort to avoid it. 2. That the
immediate effect we wish to produce is good in itself. 3. That the good
effect intended is at least as important as the evil effect permitted.
4. That the evil is not made a means used to obtain the good effect.

Now let us apply these principles to the case in hand.

1. If the medicine is necessary to save the mother's life, and it is not
certain to bring on abortion, though it is likely to do so, then the
good effect is greater and more immediate or direct than the bad effect;
then give the medicine to save the mother, and permit the probable death
of the child.

2. If the medicine is not necessary to save the mother's life, though
very useful, for the sake of such an advantage, you cannot justly expose
the child's life to serious danger.

3. But if the danger it is exposed to is not serious but slight, and the