Directions: Read the following case study about Sue in preparation for the Topic 4 assignment.
Sue is 8 years old and her mother brought her in for treatment due to feeling extremely frustrated with Sue’s current behavior. Sue is an outgoing child around her family members (she has two older siblings), she prefers being with her mother and has significant anxiety if she has to go to school and/or when she is away from her family members. Sue cries and throws a fit each morning prior to her mother dropping her off at school. She has missed multiple days of school due to her mother just giving up and letting her stay at home with her. Her mother reported just feeling worn out and feeling frustrated with Sue’s school for telling her that Sue has to attend school but not seeing what mom has to go through each morning to get her to class. In the past, Sue has become so anxious that she has made herself sick (throwing up, breaking out in hives), this is especially true right after any school breaks and Mondays seem to be the most difficult of days.
Sue’s mother works from home and she wonders if maybe homeschooling Sue would be better. She and her husband at first were worried about Sue’s clinginess but she was the baby of the family and just attributed it to her being the youngest and wanting more attention. They tried preschool and kindergarten but more frequently than not, Sue stayed home with mother due to her behavior rapidly escalating and seeing the stress on her child. During 1st grade, Sue was frequently sent home due to the school nurse believing her to be sick. In 2nd and now in 3rd grade, her school has changed their policy and is no longer allowing her to leave school unless she is showing physical symptoms (fever, rash, vomiting), which seems to have elevated her symptoms. She has recently begun breaking out in hives and having more occurrences of vomiting.
Sue’s parents have tried bribery (offering money and toys if she goes to school without throwing a fit) with no results. Sue’s grades are good and she does well with the homework; however, she usually tests poorly in class. Sue will frequently end up with the school nurse complaining of her head or stomach hurting, despite having no physical symptoms of illness. She has made no friends at school and Sue reports constantly worrying about something bad happening to her mother and older siblings.
Combatants are people who are involved directly or indirectly with the war and it is lawful to kill ‘to shelter the innocent from harm…punish evildoers (Begby et al (2006b), Page 290).However, as mentioned above civilian cannot be harmed, showing combatants as the only legitimate targets, another condition of jus in bello, as ‘we may not use the sword against those who have not harmed us (Begby et al (2006b), Page 314).’ In addition, Frowe suggested combatants must be identified as combatants, to avoid the presence of guerrilla warfare which can end up in a higher death count, for example, the Vietnam War. Moreover, he argued they must be part of the army, bear arms and apply to the rules of jus in bello. (Frowe (2011), Page 101-3). This suggests Frowe seeks a fair, just war between two participants avoiding non-combatant deaths, but wouldn’t this lead to higher death rate for combatants, as both sides have relatively equal chance to win since both use similar tactics? Nevertheless, arguably Frowe will argue that combatant can lawfully kill each other, showing this is just, which is also supported by Vittola, who states: ‘it is lawful to draw the sword and use it against malefactors (Begby et al (2006b), Page 309).’ In addition, Vittola expresses the extent of military tactics used, but never reaches a conclusion whether it’s lawful or not to proceed these actions, as he constantly found a middle ground, where it can be lawful to do such things but never always (Begby et al (2006b), Page 326-31). This is supported by Frowe, who measures the legitimate tactics according to proportionality and military necessity. It depends on the magnitude of how much damage done to one another, in order to judge the actions after a war. For example, one cannot simply nuke the terrorist groups throughout the middle-east, because it is not only proportional, it will damage the whole population, an unintended consequence. More importantly, the soldiers must have the right intention in what they are going to achieve, sacrificing the costs to their actions. For example: if soldiers want to execute all prisoners of war, they must do it for the right intention and for a just cause, proportional to the harm done to them. This is supported by Vittola: ‘not always lawful to execute all combatants…we must take account… scale of the injury inflicted by the enemy.’ This is further supported by Frowe approach, which is a lot more moral than Vittola’s view but implies the same agendas: ‘can’t be punished simply for fighting.’ This means one cannot simply punish another because they have been a combatant. They must be treated as humanely as possible. However, the situation is escalated if killing them can lead to peace and security, within the interests of all parties.