The permissibility of killing innocent people in war is not usually defended. However, Elizabeth Anscombe’s defense of the application of double effect in warfare seems to allow for innocent civilians to be killed in special borderline cases such as the bombing of a munitions factory. This seems to rest on the proposition that the bomber does not intend to use the civilians’ deaths as a means to an end, but merely foresees their deaths as a result of the destruction of the factory. In this article I challenge this idea and potentially expose a weakness in Anscombe’s argumentation.
Key words: Anscombe, double effect, intention, pacifism, just war theory.
