The Ransom Dilemma

Dec 9, 2014 Peter Singer

The refusal to pay ransoms to terrorists can seem callous, but in truth it is the only ethical policy. Governments that pay ransoms to groups like the Islamic State are saving the lives of some of their citizens, but putting the remainder of their citizens – and others – at greater risk.

PRINCETON – Anyone who does not share the ideology of the so-called “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria is likely to agree that it is wrong for the group’s adherents to behead some of those they have held hostage. Much more controversial, however, are the secret decisions by European governments to pay such groups ransoms for the release of their nationals.

Although the Islamic State’s hostages have come from several countries, so far it has beheaded only those from the United States and the United Kingdom. The only European hostage reported to have been executed directly by the Islamic State appears to have been a Russian, Sergey Gorbunov, but little is known about him. No friend or relative has come forward, and no video of his death has been released. Russian officials have publicly doubted that he was a Russian citizen.

On the other hand, the Islamic State has released 15 hostages, including citizens of Italy, France, Switzerland, Denmark, and Spain.

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Peter Singer

Writing for PS since 2001
192 Commentaries

Peter Singer is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and founder of the non-profit organization The Life You Can Save. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), Rethinking Life and Death, The Point of View of the Universe, co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, The Most Good You Can Do, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, One World Now, Ethics in the Real World, Why Vegan?, and Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction, also with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek. In 2013, he was named the world's third "most influential contemporary thinker" by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

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David Morgan Jan 19, 2015

The west needs to tell all captured JIhadist that any body parts of suicide bomers or those killed in gun battles in the west will be fed to pigs especially their private parts. Their belif is that when they get to heaven parts eaten by pigs will not be there. Could be a deterrant.
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David Neuman Dec 19, 2014

Ransom is one of the biggest sources of funding and revenue for ISIS. Countries are right not to contribute, even if it means not successfully negotiating the release of a hostage, I'm afraid.
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Miro Alibasic Dec 15, 2014

Peter,
With all due respect, you're completely uninformed & not positioned on this subject. Framing us! If your loved one or you, may it never happen, come in similar situation you'll know how painful such 'opinionated' stance can hurt ones who experienced Evil!
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j. von Hettlingen Dec 14, 2014

Peter Singer defends the principle of "the good of the many outweighs the good of the few". By paying ransoms for the release of their citizens captured abroad, European governments have saved a few lives, while rewarding criminality and enabling the jihadi groups to enhance their militant activities, like the ones we saw across Iraq and Syria.
When hostages are taken by terrorist groups, rather than by ordinary criminals, the impact of paying ransom can't be underestimated. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), which for much of its history was an insignificant affiliate of al-Qaida, had grown in size and capability, partly due to income from ransom payments. Governments in north and west Africa have urged Western countries not to pay ransoms, with which terrorists finance their operations, that aime at destabilising the region.
There are no ideal options here. There is the conflict between the general and the particular will. European governments had been under pressure to bring hostages back to their families. But Britain the US take a firmer stand, weighing up the political consequences of letting the jihadists to use the ransom money for violent ends.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau recognised the problematic of complying with the common good and the general will when they are in conflict with individuals' interests. He firmly insisted that the interests of the community should prevail. Protecting the wider public should outweigh the saving of an individual's life. This logic is seen as obnoxious by those affected.
It is a painful decision that governments have to make, when their citizens are kidnapped by Islamists. It explains why the UN Security Council adopted unanimously a resolution in January, "opposing payment of such ransoms", and a similar declaration was made at the G-8 summit in June 2013 in Northern Ireland. A global consensus is the only way to discourage terrorists from making kidnapping a profitable business.
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Bendik Storen Dec 14, 2014

Does not this entail that you treat the captive only as a mean to an end, namely fighting terrorists and removing kidnapping as a viable strategy for funding, and not as an end in him-/herself? Why not make the rule that you pay the ransom and save the captive, and then wih no exception recollect the money by military means. This way civillians get to stay civillians, and not suddenly and unwillingly be sacrificed for the greater good. Perhaps it is rarely possible to regain the equivalent of the ransom, and perhaps the premise of the dilemma was that it is impossible, but it seems weird not to even rule it out.
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David Katz Dec 12, 2014

You are this tough as long as you or someone you love are not captured. What do citizens pay taxes to the states for if, at the most dangerous moments, these states don't want to help and leave their citizens to the butchers?!
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Russell Hamilton Dec 11, 2014

"We ought to use our resources to save the most lives; and, overall, paying ransoms is likely to lead to more lives being lost."

Perhaps. You might ransom a life and know you had saved it; possibly the Islamic State might then split, self-destruct, or be military obliterated and be out of the hostage-taking business. Not so sure you can so easily calculate future possible harms against known present benefits.

The Islamic State controls oil wells and has Lord knows what other sources of funds - is ransom money necessarily so important to them? Do you know this?
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David Morgan Dec 10, 2014

I am glad to hear that France is hardening its position as you correctly said paying terrorists put more peoples lives in danger. France always likes to be different, they have a superior attitude but little else.
- jean-louis salvignol Dec 21, 2014
  
  As a French citizen, I consider the duplicity of our executive power as simply despicable. Maybe Valls is changing that, Formally. But In Mali we just realized an exchange of islamists prisoners against a french hostage...
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Curtis Carpenter Dec 10, 2014

Well put.
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