The Slippery Slope
CJ 340-02 Applied Criminal Justice Ethics
Professor Natalie Sheldon
September 13, 2011
The slippery slope is where corruption starts. The "slippery slope" argument is essentially that if you make any exceptions to a rule, pretty soon people will be ignoring the rule entirely because they won't accept the difference between the exception and everything else. "If you allow exceptions to a rule, it creates a slope away from the absoluteness of the rule, down which people will slide further and further until they will not obey the rule at all." (Garlikov). The basic strategy of a slippery slope argument is to show that a particular action or practice is morally unacceptable not necessarily because it is itself immoral, but because it will lead to other actions or practices which are immoral.
The arguments of physician assisted suicide is another example. One common argument in this area states that it may be perfectly justifiable to end the life of a terminally ill, suffering, competent patient who requests death. If we begin this practice, however, we will soon start killing people who are not terminally ill, or presently suffering. Worse yet, we will begin to make decisions for those who cannot decide for themselves. Ultimately, we will even overrule the stated preferences of incompetent patients who explicitly refuse euthanasia, and that would be immoral. (2000).
Examples of the slippery slope include free coffee, reduced priced meals and other gifts to police officer for the extra security on their businesses. Think about this. If you allow someone to have something for the services that all of us should have, it is not fair. I realize that businesses are looking for extra protection and they feel that the only way to achieve this is to offer incentives to the police officers. These can be things such as free coffee or actual monetary gifts.
Another example is if you don’t finish high school, you won't graduate and...
