Sacrificing a suspect is justified only when cheaper containment is impossible.

Evidence

We blame those northern peasants who in the war of 1914-18 massacred an innocent family which was suspected of signaling to the enemy; the reason is that not only were the presumptions vague, but the danger was uncertain; at any rate, it was enough to put the suspects into prison; while waiting for a serious inquiry it was easy to keep them from doing any harm. However, if a questionable individual holds the fate of other men in his hands, if, in order to avoid the risk of killing one innocent man, one runs the risk of letting ten innocent men die, it is reasonable to sacrifice him. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 139

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Mirrors the trolley-problem structure; Beauvoir gives a concrete maxim (use nonlethal restraint whenever available) that utility framing often skips.