Quantifiable Justice

Can we count or weigh justice? For the purposes of this discussion, let’s first agree on what justice means. How about this: Justice is correcting something that’s not right. Alternatively, justice is giving something what it deserves. Yes?

Consider justice in context. Say you’re driving to office one morning and an elderly lady is crossing the street rather wobbly. (You're actually running late because your dog ate the project proposal that you were supposed to present that morning.) Your vehicle is approaching her but she’s still struggling. Suppose that granny wasn’t using a pedestrian crossing, how would you respond? (a driver’s rights may vary in different jurisdictions, but assume you have the right of way.)

Whatever your response may be, you’d have probably consulted with your beliefs and/or values. Whatever your response may be, it is what you’d consider as a just reaction. Can that reaction, a just act given the circumstances, be quantified in any way?

Perhaps your dorm is serving at one of the local agencies, or maybe you have participated in an ABSL class or have went on a S-LC spring break trip. Can your service -- an act, or a series of acts, of justice -- be quantified? If yes, in what terms?

Or consider from a public health policy angle: Is it just to spend a few million dollars of tax money on a nation-wide vaccination program if it could only save 10 lives?

Let's Plant Marijuana

Come April, it will be legal to plant marijuana in our backyards... but only if you have a chronic medical condition (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/
health/chi-medical-marijuanamar20,0,1359482.story). This is probably old news if you voted for (or against) it sometime back, but it is worth revisiting.

As we age, some form of anatomical wear and tear would happen. With an aging population, the normal process of our body breaking down becomes a public health and policy concern. So here we have several issues to look at: Gerontology, medical ethics, law and order, medical economics,....

Whether there's a system in place to ensure that 100% of those home-grown marijuana is used for the legitimate medical purpose interests me. I chanced upon this BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7942432.stm) and thought there might be common ground for us to do a comparative study.